The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri
(zhäk äNr´ brnärdN´ d sN–pyr´) (KEY) , 1737–1814, French naturalist and author. He was a friend of Rousseau, by whom he was strongly influenced. His chief work, Études de la nature (1784), sought to prove the existence of God from the wonders of nature; it is rich in descriptive passages, and it added specific color terms and plant names to the French language. A section of this was the sentimental prose idyll Paul et Virginie (1788), which attained immense vogue and influenced the French romanticists.
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