Bonald

Bonald, Vicomte de, publicist and philosopher, 1754-1840. An aristocrat of the aristocrats, he became a Mousquetaire under Louis XV., and stayed in the corps till its suppression in 1776. Then quitting public life he retired to his native place. In 1790, being then member of the Departmental Assembly, he thought himself in honour bound to share the lot of the "Emigres"; and he established himself at Heidelberg, where he devoted himself to the education of his two sons. Here he wrote his theory of Political and Religious Power in Civil Society, a treatise which gives the keynote of his character, which remained unchanged throughout his life. His theory was that pure royalty and the Catholic religion are the two indispensable conditions of society. He is perhaps better known as the consistent opponent of divorce, and the principal cause of its long disappearance from the French statute-book. Bonald was held in great honour both by the Bonapartes and by the Bourbons. As a philosopher he is chiefly noted for his theories that speech is innate, and that there is a medium between cause and effect.