“_Sir_,—Be my saviour. I am dying of starvation. For fifteen days I eat only bread and drink water; I work without a fire, and I have sold everything save my garments to cover the expense of the copies. It is a passion for science and the public good, it is the desire of discovering a means of terminating in a peaceable manner the dreadful crisis in which I find the entire European society engaged, that has caused me to fall into this condition of distress; therefore, it is without blushing that I am able to confess my misery and demand assistance to enable me to continue my work.” This letter met with no very favorable response, though Cuvier made him a small donation and others showed a mild interest in his welfare. His disciples, however, were afterwards proud of it. The following exhortation follows its quotation in the “Doctrine de Saint-Simon:”[41] “Children of Saint-Simon! generations of the future! guard as a religious memorial these lines which your father has left you as a sacred legacy. When his word shall have renewed the face of the earth, when the doctrine of recompense according to works shall have been realized among men, when the last of the living shall obtain from the solicitude of society a guaranteed subsistence, a remuneration in proportion to merits, children of Saint-Simon, you will then love to repeat how, in order to accomplish his mission of regeneration, your father was reduced to begging.” A small pension was finally granted Saint-Simon by his family, and he worked on quietly till 1823, but he found little sympathy and encouragement, and for once his courage deserted him. He was more than sixty years of age, his strength began to decrease, he was in want of every comfort and convenience and lacked the support and helpful consolations of domestic life. In his state of loneliness he was filled with despair by the thought that his life had been a failure, and he resolved to put an end to his own wretched existence. Fortunately, however, he only succeeded in inflicting severe but not fatal injuries upon himself. His pitiable condition appears to have moved some kind hearts, for he was cared for tenderly until he recovered, when he regained faith in his mission and worked more diligently than ever. In the same year he finished his “Catéchisme des Industriels,” and in 1825, the year of his death, he completed the “Nouveau Christianisme.” These two works and his “Système Industriel,” published in 1821-22, are his three most important productions.