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Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (also called Bernardin de St. Pierre) (19 January 1737, in Le Havre – 21 January 1814, in Éragny, Val-d'Oise) was a French writer and
International Vegetarian Union,"The Ethics of Diet": Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques-Henri 1737 births 1814 deaths 18th-century French botanists 18th-century French male writers 18th-century French novelists 18th-century French writers 19th-century French botanists 19th-century French writers 19th-century French male writers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Corps des ponts École des Ponts ParisTech alumni French children's writers French male novelists French vegetarianism activists Lycée Pierre-Corneille alumni Members of the Académie Française Writers from Le Havre Scientists from Le Havre
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
. He is best known for his 1788 novel '' Paul et Virginie'', now largely forgotten, but in the 19th century a very popular children's book.
Biography
At the age of twelve he had read '' Robinson Crusoe'' and went with his uncle, a skipper, to the West-Indies. After returning from this trip he was educated as an engineer at theÉcole des Ponts
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
. Then he joined the French Army and was involved in the Seven Years' War against Prussia and England. In 1768 he traveled to Mauritius where he served as engineer and studied plants. In 1771 he became friendly with and a pupil of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Together they studied the plants in and around Paris.
In 1795 he was elected to the Institut de France, in 1797 manager of the Botanical Gardens and in 1803 member of the Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
.
Saint-Pierre was an avid advocate and practitioner of vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism may ...
, and although he was a devout Christian was also heavily influenced by Enlightenment-era intellectuals like Voltaire and his mentor Rousseau.
Legacy
:"Barye's predators devouring their living prey indulge the emotions in a Romantic way of course, but they also embody a romantically moralizing point of view like those held by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,Mme de Staël
Madam (), or madame ( or ), is a polite and formal form of address for Woman, women in the English language, often contracted to ma'am (pronounced in American English and this way but also in British English). The term derives from the French ...
, and Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
. The '' Oeuvres complètes'' of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre appeared in Paris in 1834 and was surely known to Barye, for the author was the former director of the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes and one of the "masters of genuine poetry" for the archromantic Mme de Staël. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre maintained that a carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
animal in devouring its prey alive committed a sin against the laws of its own nature."
Alexander von Humboldt, next to Charles Darwin the best known naturalist of the nineteenth century, belonged to the admirers of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and cherished the novel ''Paul et Virginie''.
Works
*''Voyage à l’Île de France, à l’île Bourbon et au cap de Bonne-Espérance'' (1773) *''L’Arcadie'' (1781) *''Études de la nature'' (1784) *'' Paul et Virginie'' (1788) *''La Chaumière indienne'' (1790) *''Le Café de Surate'' (1790) *''Les Vœux d’un solitaire'' (1790) *''De la nature de la morale'' (1798) *''Voyage en Silésie'' (1807) *''La Mort de Socrate'' (1808) *''Harmonies de la nature'' (1815)
See also
* Society of the Friends of TruthReferences
External links
* * *International Vegetarian Union,"The Ethics of Diet": Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques-Henri 1737 births 1814 deaths 18th-century French botanists 18th-century French male writers 18th-century French novelists 18th-century French writers 19th-century French botanists 19th-century French writers 19th-century French male writers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Corps des ponts École des Ponts ParisTech alumni French children's writers French male novelists French vegetarianism activists Lycée Pierre-Corneille alumni Members of the Académie Française Writers from Le Havre Scientists from Le Havre