Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/207

Rh S A I S A I 187 guese Jew, who taught a species of mysticism drawn from cabbalistic sources, and endeavoured to found thereon a secret cult with magical or theurgical rites. In 1771 Saint- Martin left the army in order to become a social preacher of mysticism. His conversational powers made him welcome in the most aristocratic and polished Parisian salons ; but his missionary zeal led him to England, Italy, and Switzerland, as well as to the chief towns of France. At Strasburg in 1788 he met Charlotte de Boecklin, who initiated him in the writings of Jacob Boehme, and at the same time inspired in his breast a semi-romantic attach- ment. His later years were devoted almost entirely to the composition of his chief works and to the translation of those of Boehme. He died at Aunay, near Paris, on the 23d October 1803. His chief works are Lettre cl un ami sur la. Revolution Franqaise ; Eclair sur V association humaine ; De V esprit des choses ; Ministere de rhomme-esprit. Other treatises appeared in his CEuvres post- hunies (1807). Saint- Martin regarded the French Revolution as a sermon in action, if not indeed a miniature of the last judgment ; its result was to be the regeneration of society by a destruction of its abuses. His ideal society was "a natural and spiritual theo- cracy," in which God would raise up men of mark and endowment, who would regard themselves strictly as ' ' divine commissioners " to guide the people through the crises of their history. This mystical dictatorship was to rest entirely upon persuasion. In like manner all ecclesiastical organization was to disappear, giving place to a purely spiritual Christianity, the doctrines of which constitute a species of theosophy. Their philosophical basis in Saint-Martin is the assertion of a faculty superior to the reason, which he calls the moral sense, and from which we derive our knowledge of God. In man, and not elsewhere, is to be found the key to the divine nature. God exists as an eternal personality, and the creation is an overflowing of the divine love, which was unable to contain itself. The human soul, the human intellect or spirit, the spirit of the universe, and the elements or matter are the four stages of this divine emanation, man being the immediate reflexion of God, and nature in turn a reflexion of man. Man, however, has fallen from his high estate, and matter is one of the consequences of his fall. But the divine love, united to humanity in Christ, will work the final regeneration or restoration of all things. Comp. Gence, Notice biographlque (1824) ; Caro, Essai sur la vie et les doctrines de Saint-Martin (1852) ; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries de Lundi, vol. x. p. 190 ; Matter, Saint-Martin, le philosophe inconnu (1862) ; Franck, La philosophic mystique en France a la fin du dix-huitieme siecle (1866). ST MAUR-SUR-LOIRE, founded by St Maurus (see MAURUS), was the first Benedictine monastery in Gaul. It was situated on the left bank of the Loire about 15 miles below Saumur. About the middle of the 9th century it was reduced to ruins by the Normans ; shortly before the event and in anticipation of it the relics of the saint were transferred to St Maur-les-Fosses near Paris. St Maur-sur-Loire was afterwards restored and fortified, but the only extant remains consist of a part of the church and a few shattered columns. ST MICHAEL'S. See AZORES, vol. iii. p. 171. ST NAZAIRE, a town of France, in the department of Loire Inferieure, and a port on the right bank of the Loire near its mouth. It has rapidly grown since the new docks rendered it the outport or detached harbour of NANTES (q.v.), from which it is distant 29 miles west -north -west by water and 40 by rail. Begun in 1845 and opened in 1857, the first basin has an area of 26 acres and 1 mile of quays ; and the depth varies from 20 to 25 feet. To the north of the first basin a new dock (Penhouet), 56 acres in extent and with 1| miles of quay, was constructed be- tween 1864 and 1881, at a cost of nearly 1,000,000. It communicates with the older basin by a passage 82 feet wide and 673 long. The harbour can admit vessels of 23 feet draught at every tide, the depth of water on the sill varying from 26 to 30 feet at high tide, and never being less than 13. The town is the terminus of the General Transatlantic Company, whose steamers connect France with Mexico, the Antilles, and the Isthmus of Panama. The total imports and exports amount to about 1,600,000 tons annually, valued at 24,000,000. The staple articles imported are coals from Great Britain (500,000 tons), grain, sugar, coffee, rice, timber (from the North), phos- phates, and guano. Pit-props, salt, and preserved foods are exported. The town being of recent origin, its indus- tries are only in process of development ; but it already contains shipbuilding yards, large ironworks, artificial fuel factories, sawmills, a flour-mill, and extensive commercial warehouses. There are no edifices of historical or architect- ural note with the exception of a granite dolmen, 10 feet long and 5 broad, resting horizontally on two other stones sunk in the soil, above which they rise 6| feet. The population was 16,314 in 1881 (19,626 in the commune). According to certain remains discovered on excavating the docks, St Nazaire seems to occupy the site of the ancient Corbilo, placed by Strabo among the more important maritime towns of Gaul, and probably founded by the Phrenicians. It was in the harbour of Corbilo that Crassus by Cfesar's order built the fleet by which, in 56 B.C., Brutus routed the 220 vessels of the Venetian insurgents. At the close of the 4th century the site of Corbilo was occupied by Saxons, and, their conversion to Christianity being effected one or two hundred years later by St Felix of Nantes, the place took the name of St Nazaire. It was still only a little " bourg " of 3000 inhabitants when it was chosen as the site of the new harbour for Nantes, because the ascent of the Loire was becoming more and more difficult. In 1868 the sub -prefecture was transferred to St Nazaire from Savenay. ST NICOLAS, a town of Belgium, in the district of Dendermonde, in the province of East Flanders, 19^ miles from Ghent by the railway to Antwerp. It is a well-built, modern -looking place, with a very spacious market-place, famous as the spot where Philip the Fair swore in 1497 to maintain the privileges of Waesland, of which St Nicolas was the capital. From a comparatively small village, with only 5000 inhabitants in 1661, it has grown into a large manufacturing centre, with wool and cotton mills, needle -factories, <fcc., and a population (in 1876) of 24,729. The more conspicuous buildings are the town-hall and two of the churches. ST OMER, a town and fortress of France, chef-lieu of the department of Pas-de-Calais, situated on the Aa (which flows into the North Sea), 177 miles north of Paris by the railway to Arras, Hazebrouck, and Calais, at the junction of a line to Boulogne. Before the modifications made in the defensive system of the frontier the place was a fortress of the first class. At St Omer begins the canalized portion of the Aa, which reaches the sea at Gravelines, and under its walls it connects with the Neuffosse, which ends at the Lys. There are two harbours outside and one within the city. St Omer has wide streets and spacious squares, but little stir of life. The old cathedral is the most curious church in Artois; it belongs almost entirely to the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. Of its four portals the finest, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, was decorated with statuettes, unfortunately mutilated during the Revolu- tion. In spite of the spoliations of the 18th century, the contents of the church still comprise interesting paintings, a Virgin in wood of the 12th century (the object of numer- ous pilgrimages, and solemnly crowned in 1875), a colossal statue of Christ seated between the Virgin and St John (13th century, originally belonging to the cathedral of Th^rouanne and presented by Charles V.), fine stained glass and mosaics, interesting tombstones, the cenotaph of St Omer, and numerous ex-votos, distinguished by their an- tiquity, originality, and delicacy of workmanship. The clearing of the church from the encroachments of other buildings has led to the reconstruction of the apsidial chapel of the Sacred Heart in the purest Gothic style. Of St Bertin, the church of the abbey (built between 1326 and 1520 on the site of previous churches), where Childeric III. retired to end his days, nothing now remains but some arches and a tower, 190 feet high, which serves to adorn the public gardens (once possessed by the monks). Several