f Louis), on whom, to the indignation
of the peers, the king had bestowed the rank and precedence of princes
of the blood. In 1721 Saint Simon went on a special embassy to Spain to
arrange the double marriage of Louis XV. to the Infanta, and of the
Prince of the Asturias to the Regent's granddaughter. There he was made
a grandee of the first class. Soon after his return he gave up
interference in public affairs, but he lived for thirty years longer,
writing incessantly, and died in 1755.

The history of his enormous literary productions is curious enough.
Nothing was published, and, from the personal nature of most of his
work, nothing could well be published, during his lifetime. He died
intestate, and with no immediate heirs, and opportunity was taken to
impound the whole of his manuscripts, amounting to hundreds of volumes.
Extracts from the memoirs were surreptitiously published from time to
time during the eighteenth century, but it was not till 1839 that the
whole was fully and faithfully given to the world. These memoirs,
however, form relatively but a small part of the vast mass of Saint
Simon's manuscripts, though they fill twenty printed volumes. Until very
recently obstacles of a not very intelligible character have been thrown
in the way of publication by the French Foreign Office, to which the
MSS. belong; but at length these seem to have been overcome, and three
different workers, M. de Boislisle, M. Drumont, and M. Faugere, have
been engaged in editing or re-editing different parts of the total. The
minor works, however, from the specimens already published, would seem
to be of less interest than the memoirs; most of them bearing on the, to
Saint Simon, inexhaustible subject of the privileges of the peerage, and
its place in the hierarchy of government. To discuss these subjects
would lead us out of our way. It is sufficient to say that it is a great
mistake to regard Saint Simon as a mere selfish aristocrat in the cant
sense. He would have had the kingdom justly and wisely governed for the
benefit of the whole nation, but he regarded the nobility, and, above
all, the peers, as the pre-destined instruments of government. 'Much for
the people, but nothing by the people,' was his political motto.

The importance of Saint Simon in literature is, however, entirely
independent of his standpoint as a politician, though that standpoint
was not without influence on his literary characteristics. He is
valuable to