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Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (also called Bernardin de St. Pierre) (19 January 1737, in
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
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...
– 21 January 1814, in Éragny, Val-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674. ...
) was a French writer and 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
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
.
Biography
At the age of twelve he had read ''Robinson Crusoe
''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...
'' and went with his uncle, a skipper, to the West-Indies. After returning from this trip he was educated as an engineer at the École des Ponts. Then he joined the French Army and was involved in the Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
against Prussia and England. In 1768 he traveled to Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
where he served as engineer and studied plants. In 1771 he became friendly with and a pupil of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
. Together they studied the plants in and around Paris.
In 1795 he was elected to the Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institut ...
, 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 or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
.
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.
Vegetarianis ...
, and although he was a devout Christian was also heavily influenced by Enlightenment-era intellectuals like Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...
and his mentor Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
.
Legacy
:"Barye's predators devouring their living prey indulge the emotions in a Romantic way of course, but they also embody a romanticallymoralizing
Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...
point of view like those held by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Mme de Staël, 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
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
in 1834 and was surely known to Barye, for the author was the former director of the zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to z ...
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 ...
animal in devouring its prey
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...
alive committed a sin against the laws of its own nature."
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...
, 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