s of the Polytechnic School; ardent and
lively young men, full of enthusiasm, brought up without faith in the
gospel and yet unable to live without religion of some sort. Among the
active members of the sect were at one time Pierre Leroux, Jules and
Michel Chevalier, Lerminier, [and] my personal friend Dr. Poyen, who
initiated me and so many others in New England into the mysteries of
animal magnetism. Dr. Poyen was, I believe, a native of the island of
Guadeloupe: a man of more ability than he usually had credit for, of
solid learning, genuine science, and honest intentions. I knew him well
and esteemed him highly. When I knew him his attachment to the new
religion was much weakened, and he often talked to me of the old Church,
and assured me that he felt at times that he must return to her bosom. I
owe him many hints which turned my thoughts toward Catholic principles,
and which, with God's grace, were of much service to me. These and many
others were in the sect; whose chiefs, after the death of its founder,
were--Bazard, a Liberal and a practical man, who killed himself; and
Enfantin, who after the dissolution of the sect sought employment in the
service of the Viceroy of Egypt, and occupies now some important post in
connection with the French railways.

The sect began in 1826 by addressing the working classes; but their
success was small. In 1829 they came out of their narrow circle, assumed
a bolder tone, addressed themselves to the general public, and became in
less than eighteen months a Parisian _mode_. In 1831 they purchased the
Globe newspaper, made it their organ, and distributed gratuitously five
thousand copies daily. In 1832 they had established a central
propagandism in Paris, and had their missionaries in most of the
departments of France. They attacked the hereditary peerage, and it
fell; they seemed to be numerous and strong, and I believed for a moment
in their complete success. They called their doctrine a religion, their
ministers priests, and their organization a church; and as such they
claimed to be recognized by the State, and to receive from it a
subvention as other religious denominations [did]. But the courts
decided that Saint-Simonism was not a religion and its ministers were
not religious teachers. This decision struck them with death. Their
prestige vanished. They scattered, dissolved in thin air, and went off,
as Carlyle would say, into endless vacuity, as do sooner or later all
shams