Alpharabius (Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan) (Abu Nasr), called
Al Farabi, Turkish philosopher, termed by Ibn Khallikan the greatest
philosopher the Moslems ever had, travelled to Bagdad, mastered
the works of Aristotle, and became master of Avicenna. Al Farabi is
said to have taught the eternity of the world and to have denied the
permanent individuality of the soul. His principal work is a sort
of encyclopædia. Rénan says he expressly rejected all supernatural
revelation. Died at Damascus Dec. 950, aged upwards of eighty.
Amaury or Amalric de Chartres, a heretic of the thirteenth century,
was a native of Bene, near Chartres, and lived at Paris, where he gave
lessons in logic. In a work bearing the title of Physion, condemned
by a bull of Pope Innocent III. (1204), he is said to have taught a
kind of Pantheism, and that the reign of the Father and Son must give
place to that of the Holy Spirit. Ten of his disciples were burnt at
Paris 20 Dec. 1210, and the bones of Amaury were exhumed and placed
in the flames.
Amberley (John Russell) Viscount, eldest son of Earl Russell,
b. 1843. Educated at Harrow, Edinburgh and Trinity College,
Cambridge, where ill-health prevented him reading for honors. He
entered Parliament in 1866 as Radical member for Nottingham. Lord
Amberley contributed thoughtful articles to the North British,
the Fortnightly and Theological Reviews, and will be remembered by
his bold Analysis of Religious Belief (1876), in which he examines,
compares and criticises the various faiths of the world. Lord Amberley
left his son to be brought up by Mr. Spalding, a self-taught man of
great ability and force of character; but the will was set aside, on
appeal to the Court of Chancery, in consideration of Mr. Spalding's
heretical views. Died 8 Jan. 1876.
Amman (Hans Jacob), German surgeon and traveller, b. Lake Zurich
1586. In 1612 he went to Constantinople, Palestine and Egypt, and
afterwards published a curious book called Voyage in the Promised
Land. Died at Zurich, 1658.
Ammianus (Marcellinus). Roman soldier-historian of the fourth century,
b. at Antioch. He wrote the Roman history from the reign of Nerva to
the death of Valens in thirty-one books, of which the first thirteen
are lost. His history is esteemed impartial and trustworthy. He served
under Julian, and compares the rancor of the Christians of the period
to that of wild beasts. Gibbon calls him "an accurate and faithful
guide." Died about 395 A.D.
Ammonius, surnamed Saccas or the Porter, from his having been obliged
in the early part of his life to adopt that calling, was born of
Christian parents in Alexandria during the second century. He,
however, turned Pagan and opened a school of philosophy. Among his
pupils were Origen, Longinus and Plotinus. He undoubtedly originated
the Neo-Platonic movement, which formed the most serious opposition
to Christianity in its early career. Ammonius died A.D. 243, aged
over eighty years.
Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher of the Ionic school, b. about 499 B.C.,
lived at Athens and enjoyed the friendship of Pericles. In 450 B.C. he
was accused of Atheism for maintaining the eternity of matter and was
banished to Lampsacus, where he died in 428 B.C. It is related that,
being asked how he desired to be honored after death, he replied,
"Only let the day of my death be observed as a holiday by the boys
in the schools." He taught that generation and destruction are only
the union and separation of elements which can neither be created
nor annihilated.
Andre-Nuytz (Louis), author of Positivism for All, an elementary
exposition of Positive philosophy, to which Littré wrote a preface,
1868.
Andrews (Stephen Pearl). American Sociologist, b. Templeton, Mass.,
22 March, 1812. He was an ardent Abolitionist, an eloquent speaker,
and the inventor of a universal language called Alwato. His principle
work is entitled The Basic Outline of Universology (N. Y., 1872). He
also wrote The Church and Religion of the Future (1886). He was a
prominent member and vice-president of the Liberal Club of New York,
a contributor to the London Times, the New York Truthseeker, and many
other journals. Died at New York, 21 May, 1886.
Andrieux (Louis). French deputy, b. Trévoux 20 July, 1840. Was
called to the bar at Lyons, where he became famous for his political
pleading. He took part in the Freethought Congress at Naples in 1869,
and in June of the following year he was imprisoned for three months
for his attack on the Empire. On the establishment of the Republic he
was nominated procureur at Lyons. He was on the municipal council of
that city, which he has also represented in the Chamber of Deputies. In
1879 he became Prefect of Police at Paris, but retired in 1881 and was
elected deputy by his constituents at Lyons. He has written Souvenirs
of a Prefect of Police (1885).
Angelucci (Teodoro). Italian poet and philosopher, b. near Tolentino
1549. He advocated Aristotle against F. Patrizi, and was banished
from Rome. One of the first emancipators of modern thought in Italy,
he also made an excellent translation of the Æneid of Virgil. Died
Montagnana, 1600.
Angiulli (Andrea). Italian Positivist, b. Castellana 12 Feb. 1837,
author of a work on philosophy and Positive research, Naples 1868. He
became professor of Anthropology at Naples in 1876, and edits a
philosophical review published in that city since 1881.
Annet (Peter). One of the most forcible writers among the English
Deists, b. at Liverpool in 1693. He was at one time a schoolmaster
and invented a system of shorthand. Priestley learnt it at school
and corresponded with Annet. In 1739 he published a pamphlet on
Freethinking the Great Duty of Religion, by P. A., minister of
religion. This was followed by the Conception of Jesus as the
Foundation of the Christian Religion, in which he boldly attacks
the doctrine of the Incarnation as "a legend of the Romanists,"
and The Resurrection of Jesus Considered (1744) in answer to Bishop
Sherlock's Trial of the Witnesses. This controversy was continued in
The Resurrection Reconsidered and The Resurrection Defenders Stript
of all Defence. In An Examination of the History and Character of
St. Paul he attacks the sincerity of the apostle to the Gentiles and
even questions the authenticity of his epistles. In Supernaturals
Examined (1747) he argues that all miracles are incredible. In 1761
he issued nine numbers of the Free Inquirer, in which he attacked
the authenticity and credibility of the Pentateuch. For this he was
brought before the King's Bench and sentenced to suffer one month's
imprisonment in Newgate, to stand twice in the pillory, once at
Charing Cross and once at the Exchange, with a label "For Blasphemy,"
then to have a year's hard labor in Bridewell and to find sureties
for good behavior during the rest of his life. It is related that
a woman seeing Annet in the pillory said, "Gracious! pilloried for
blasphemy. Why, don't we blaspheme every day!" After his release Annet
set up a school at Lambeth. Being asked his views on a future life
he replied by this apologue: "One of my friends in Italy, seeing the
sign of an inn, asked if that was the Angel." "No," was the reply,
"do you not see it is the sign of a dragon." "Ah," said my friend,
"as I have never seen either angel or dragon, how can I tell whether
it is one or the other?" Died 18 Jan. 1769. The History of the Man
after God's Own Heart (1761) ascribed to Annet, was more probably
written by Archibald Campbell. The View of the Life of King David
(1765) by W. Skilton, Horologist, is also falsely attributed to Annet.
Anthero de Quental, Portuguese writer, b. San Miguel 1843. Educated
for the law at the University of Coimbra, he has published both poetry
and prose, showing him to be a student of Hartmann, Proudhon and Rénan,
and one of the most advanced minds in Portugal.
Anthony (Susan Brownell). American reformer, b. of a Quaker family
at South Adams, Massachusetts, 15 Feb. 1820. She became a teacher,
a temperance reformer, an opponent of slavery, and an ardent advocate
of women's rights. Of the last movement she became secretary. In
conjunction with Mrs. E. C. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury she conducted
The Revolutionist founded in New York in 1868, and with Mrs. Stanton
and Matilda Joslyn Gage she has edited the History of Woman's Suffrage,
1881. Miss Anthony is a declared Agnostic.
Antoine (Nicolas). Martyr. Denied the Messiahship and divinity of
Jesus, and was strangled and burnt at Geneva, 20 April, 1632.
Antonelle (Pierre Antoine) Marquis d', French political economist,
b. Arles 1747. He embraced the revolution with ardor, and his article
in the Journal des Hommes Libres occasioned his arrest with Baboeuf. He
was, however, acquitted. Died at Arles, 26 Nov. 1817.
Antoninus (Marcus Aurelius). See Aurelius.
Apelt (Ernst Friedrich), German philosopher, b. Reichenau 3 March,
1812. He criticised the philosophy of religion from the standpoint
of reason, and wrote many works on metaphysics. Died near Gorlitz,
27 Oct. 1859.
Aquila, a Jew of Pontus, who became a proselyte to Christianity, but
afterwards left that religion. He published a Greek version of the
Hebrew scriptures to show that the prophecies did not apply to Jesus
(A.D. 128). The work is lost. He has been identified by E. Deutsch
with the author of the Targum of Onkelos.
Arago (Dominique François Jean), French academician, politician,
physicist and astronomer, b. Estagel, 26 Feb. 1786. He was elected to
the French Academy of Sciences at the age of twenty-three. He made
several optical and electro-magnetic discoveries, and advocated
the undulatory theory of light. He was an ardent Republican and
Freethinker, and took part in the provisional Government of 1848. He
opposed the election of Louis Napoleon, and refused to take the
oath of allegiance after the coup d'état of December, 1851. Died 2
Oct. 1853. Humboldt calls him a "zealous defender of the interests
of Reason."
Ardigo (Roberto), Italian philosopher, b. at Casteldidone (Cremona)
28 Jan. 1828, was intended for the Church, but took to philosophy. In
1869 he published a discourse on Peitro Pomponazzi, followed next year
by Psychology as a Positive Science. Signor Ardigo has also written on
the formation of the solar system and on the historical formation of
the ideas of God and the soul. An edition of his philosophical works
was commenced at Mantua in 1882. Ardigo is one of the leaders of the
Italian Positivists. His Positivist Morals appeared in Padua 1885.
Argens (Jean Baptiste de Boyer) Marquis d', French writer, b. at
Aix, in Provence, 24 June 1704. He adopted a military life and
served with distinction. On the accession of Frederick the Great
he invited d'Argens to his court at Berlin, and made him one of his
chamberlains. Here he resided twenty-five years and then returned to
Aix, where he resided till his death 11 June, 1771. His works were
published in 1768 in twenty-four volumes. Among them are Lettres
Juives, Lettres Chinoises and Lettres Cabalistiques, which were
joined to La Philosophie du bon sens. He also translated Julian's
discourse against Christianity and Ocellus Lucanus on the Eternity
of the World. Argens took Bayle as his model, but he was inferior to
that philosopher.
Argental (Charles Augustin de Ferriol) Count d', French diplomat,
b. Paris 20 Dec. 1700, was a nephew of Mme. de Tencin, the mother
of D'Alembert. He is known for his long and enthusiastic friendship
for Voltaire. He was said to be the author of Mémoires du Comte de
Comminge and Anecdotes de la cour d'Edouard. Died 5 Jan. 1788.
Aristophanes, great Athenian comic poet, contemporary with Socrates,
Plato, and Euripides, b. about 444 B.C. Little is known of his life. He
wrote fifty-four plays, of which only eleven remain, and was crowned
in a public assembly for his attacks on the oligarchs. With the utmost
boldness he satirised not only the the political and social evils
of the age, but also the philosophers, the gods, and the theology
of the period. Plato is said to have died with Aristophanes' works
under his pillow. Died about 380 B.C.
Aristotle, the most illustrious of ancient philosophers, was born at
Stagyra, in Thrace, 384 B.C. He was employed by Philip of Macedon
to instruct his son Alexander. His inculcation of ethics as apart
from all theology, justifies his place in this list. After the death
of Alexander, he was accused of impiety and withdrew to Chalcis,
where he died B.C. 322. Grote says: "In the published writings of
Aristotle the accusers found various heretical doctrines suitable for
sustaining their indictment; as, for example, the declaration that
prayer and sacrifices to the gods were of no avail." His influence
was predominant upon philosophy for nearly two thousand years. Dante
speaks of him as "the master of those that know."
Arnold of Brescia, a pupil of Abelard. He preached against the papal
authority and the temporal power, and the vices of the clergy. He
was condemned for heresy by a Lateran Council in 1139, and retired
from Italy. He afterwards returned to Rome and renewed his exertions
against sacerdotal oppression, and was eventually seized and burnt at
Rome in 1155. Baronius calls him "the patriarch of political heretics."
Arnold (Matthew), LL.D. poet and critic, son of Dr. Arnold of Rugby,
b. at Laleham 24 Dec. 1822. Educated at Winchester, Rugby, and Oxford,
where he won the Newdigate prize. In 1848 he published the Strayed
Reveller, and other Poems, signed A. In 1851 he married and became
an inspector of schools. In 1853 appeared Empedocles on Etna, a poem
in which, under the guise of ancient teaching he gives much secular
philosophy. In 1857 he was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In
1871 he published an essay entitled St. Paul and Protestantism; in 1873
Literature and Dogma, which, from its rejection of supernaturalism,
occasioned much stir and was followed by God and the Bible. In 1877
Mr. Arnold published Last Essays on Church and State. Mr. Arnold
has a lucid style and is abreast of the thought of his age, but he
curiously unites rejection of supernaturalism, including a personal
God, with a fond regard for the Church of England. He may be said
in his own words to wander "between two worlds, one dead, the other
powerless to be born." Died 15 April, 1888.
Arnould (Arthur), French writer, b. Dieuze 7 April, 1833. As
journalist he wrote on l'Opinion Nationale, the Rappel, Reforme and
other papers. In 1864 he published a work on Beranger, and in '69 a
History of the Inquisition. In Jan. 1870 he founded La Marseillaise
with H. Rochefort, and afterwards the Journal du Peuple with Jules
Valles. He was elected to the National Assembly and was member of
the Commune, of which he has written a history in three volumes. He
has also written many novels and dramas.
Arnould (Victor), Belgian Freethinker, b. Maestricht, 7 Nov. 1838,
advocate at the Court of Appeal, Brussels. Author of a History of the
Church 1874, and a little work on the Philosophy of Liberalism 1877.
Arouet (François Marie). See Voltaire.
Arpe (Peter Friedrich). Philosopher, b. Kiel, Holstein, 10 May,
1682. Wrote an apology for Vanini dated Cosmopolis (i.e., Rotterdam,
1712). A reply to La Monnoye's treatise on the book De Tribus
Impostoribus is attributed to him. Died, Hamburg, 4 Nov. 1740.
Arthur (John) is inserted in Maréchal's Dictionnaire des Athées
as a mechanic from near Birmingham, who took a prize at Paris and
republished the Invocation to Nature in the last pages of the System
of Nature. Julian Hibbert inserted his name in his Chronological
Tables of Anti-Superstitionists, with the date of death 1792.
Asseline (Louis). French writer, b. at Versailles in 1829, became an
advocate in 1851. In 1866 he established La Libre Pensée, a weekly
journal of scientific materialism, and when that was suppressed
La Pensée Nouvelle. He was one of the founders of the Encyclopédie
Générale. He wrote Diderot and the Nineteenth Century, and contributed
to many journals. After the revolution of 4 Sept. 1870 he was elected
mayor of the fourteenth arrondissement of Paris, and was afterwards
one of the Municipal Council of that city. Died 6 April, 1878.
Assezat (Jules). French writer, b. at Paris 21 Jan. 1832 was a son
of a compositor on the Journal des Debats, on which Jules obtained a
position and worked his way to the editorial chair. He was secretary of
the Paris Society of Anthropology, contributed to La Pensée Nouvelle,
edited the Man Machine of Lamettrie, and edited the complete works
of Diderot in twenty volumes. Died 24 June, 1876.
Assollant (Jean, Baptiste Alfred). French novelist, b. 20 March,
1827. Larousse says he has all the scepticism of Voltaire.
Ast (Georg Anton Friedrich). German Platonist, b. Gotha 29
Dec. 1778. Was professor of classical literature at Landshut and
Munich. Wrote Elements of Philosophy, 1809, etc. Died Munich 31
Dec. 1841.
Atkinson (Henry George). Philosophic writer, b. in 1818. Was educated
at the Charterhouse, gave attention to mesmerism, and wrote in
the Zoist. In 1851 he issued Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature
and Development, in conjunction with Harriet Martineau, to whom he
served as philosophic guide. This work occasioned a considerable
outcry. Mr. Atkinson was a frequent contributor to the National
Reformer and other Secular journals. He died 28 Dec. 1884, at Boulogne,
where he had resided since 1870.
Aubert de Verse (Noel). A French advocate of the seventeenth century,
who wrote a history of the Papacy (1685) and was accused of blasphemy.
Audebert (Louise). French authoress of the Romance of a Freethinker
and of an able Reply of a Mother to the Bishop of Orleans, 1868.
Audifferent (Georges). Positivist and executor to Auguste Comte,
was born at Saint Pierre (Martinque) in 1823, settled at Marseilles,
and is the author of several medical and scientific works.
Aurelius (Marcus Antoninus). Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher, b. at
Rome 26 April, 121. Was carefully educated, and lived a laborious,
abstemious life. On the death of his uncle Antoninus Pius, 161, the
Senate obliged him to take the government, but he associated with
himself L. Verus. On the death of Verus in 169 Antoninus possessed
sole authority, which he exercised with wise discretion and great
glory. Much of his time was employed in defending the northern
frontiers of the empire against Teutonic barbarians. He had no
high opinion of Christians, speaking of their obstinacy, and it is
pretended many were put to death in the reign of one of the best
emperors that ever ruled. If so we may be assured it was for their
crimes. Ecclesiastical historians have invented another pious miracle
in a victory gained through the prayers of the Christians. Antoninus
held that duty was indispensable even were there no gods. His
Meditations, written in the midst of a most active life, breathe a
lofty morality, and are a standing refutation of the view that pure
ethics depend upon Christian belief. Died 17 March, 180.
Austin (Charles), lawyer and disciple of Bentham, b. Suffolk 1799. At
Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1824 and M.A. in 1827, he won,
much to the amazement of his friends, who knew his heterodox opinions,
the Hulsean prize for an essay on Christian evidences. For this he
was sorry afterwards, and told Lord Stanley of Alderley "I could
have written a much better essay on the other side." He afterwards
wrote on the other side in the Westminster Review. Successful as a
lawyer, he retired in ill-health. J. S. Mill writes highly of his
influence. The Hon. L. A. Tollemache gives a full account of his
heretical opinions. He says "He inclined to Darwinism, because as he
said, it is so antecedently probable; but, long before this theory
broke the back of final causes, he himself had given them up." Died
21 Dec. 1874.
Austin (John), jurist, brother of above, was born 3 March, 1790. A
friend of James Mill, Grote and Bentham, whose opinions he shared,
he is chiefly known by his profound works on jurisprudence. Died 17
Dec. 1859.
Avempace, i.e., Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Bajjat (Abu Bekr), called
Ibn al-Saigh (the son of the goldsmith), Arabian philosopher and
poet, b. at Saragossa, practised medicine at Seville 1118, which he
quitted about 1120, and became vizier at the court of Fez, where he
died about 1138. An admirer of Aristotle, he was one of the teachers
of Averroes. Al-Fath Ibn Khâkân represents him as an infidel and
Atheist, and says: "Faith disappeared from his heart and left not a
trace behind; his tongue forgot the Merciful, neither did [the holy]
name cross his lips." He is said to have suffered imprisonment for
his heterodoxy.
Avenel (Georges), French writer, b. at Chaumont 31 Dec. 1828. One of
the promoters of the Encyclopédie Générale. His vindication of Cloots
(1865) is a solid work of erudition. He became editor of la République
Française and edited the edition of Voltaire published by Le Siècle
(1867-70). Died at Bougival, near Paris, 1 July, 1876, and was,
by his express wish, buried without religious ceremony.
Averroes (Muhammad Ibn-Ahmad Ibn Rushd), Abu al Walid, Arabian
philosopher, b. at Cordova in 1126, and died at Morocco 10
Dec. 1198. He translated and commented upon the works of Aristotle,
and resolutely placed the claims of science above those of theology. He
was prosecuted for his heretical opinions by the Muhammadan doctors,
was spat upon by all who entered the mosque at the hour of prayer,
and afterwards banished. His philosophical opinions, which incline
towards materialism and pantheism, had the honor of being condemned
by the University of Paris in 1240. They were opposed by St. Thomas
Aquinas, and when profoundly influencing Europe at the Renaissance
through the Paduan school were again condemned by Pope Leo X. in 1513.
Avicenna (Husain Ibn Abdallah, called Ibn Sina), Arabian physician and
philosopher, b. Aug. 980 in the district of Bokhara. From his early
youth he was a wonderful student, and at his death 15 June, 1037,
he left behind him above a hundred treatises. He was the sovereign
authority in medical science until the days of Harvey. His philosophy
was pantheistic in tone, with an attempt at compromise with theology.
Aymon (Jean), French writer, b. Dauphiné 1661. Brought up in the
Church, he abjured Catholicism at Geneva, and married at the Hague. He
published Metamorphoses of the Romish Religion, and is said to have
put forward a version of the Esprit de Spinoza under the famous title
Treatise of Three Impostors. Died about 1734.
Bagehot (Walter), economist and journalist, b. of Unitarian parents,
Langport, Somersetshire, 3 Feb. 1826; he died at the same place 24
March, 1877. He was educated at London University, of which he became
a fellow. For the last seventeen years of his life he edited the
Economist newspaper. His best-known works are The English Constitution,
Lombard Street and Literary Studies. In Physics and Politics (1872),
a series of essays on the Evolution of Society, he applies Darwinism
to politics. Bagehot was a bold, clear, and very original thinker,
who rejected historic Christianity.
Baggesen (Jens Immanuel), Danish poet, b. Kösor, Zealand. 15
Feb. 1764. In 1789 he visited Germany, France, and Switzerland; at
Berne he married the grand-daughter of Haller. He wrote popular poems
both in Danish and German, among others Adam and Eve, a humorous mock
epic (1826). He was an admirer of Voltaire. Died Hamburg, 3 Oct. 1826.
Bahnsen (Julius Friedrich August), pessimist, b. Tondern,
Schleswig-Holstein, 30 Mar. 1830. Studied philosophy at Keil,
1847. He fought against the Danes in '49, and afterwards studied at
Tübingen. Bahnsen is an independent follower of Schopenhauer and
Hartmann, joining monism to the idealism of Hegel. He has written
several works, among which we mention The Philosophy of History,
Berlin, 1872, and The Contradiction between the Knowledge and the
Nature of the World (2 vols), Berlin 1880-82.
Bahrdt (Karl Friedrich), German deist, b. in Saxony, 25
Aug. 1741. Educated for the Church, in 1766 he was made professor
of biblical philology. He was condemned for heresy, and wandered
from place to place. He published a kind of expurgated Bible, called
New Revelations of God: A System of Moral Religion for Doubters and
Thinkers, Berlin, 1787, and a Catechism of Natural Religion, Halle,
1790. Died near Halle, 23 April, 1792.
Bailey (James Napier), Socialist, edited the Model Republic, 1843, the
Torch, and the Monthly Messenger. He published Gehenna: its Monarch
and Inhabitants; Sophistry Unmasked, and several other tracts in the
"Social Reformer's Cabinet Library," and some interesting Essays on
Miscellaneous Subjects, at Leeds, 1842.
Bailey (Samuel), philosophical writer, of Sheffield, b. in 1791. His
essay on the Formation and Publication of Opinions appeared in 1821. He
vigorously contends that man is not responsible for his opinions
because they are independent of his will, and that opinions should
not be the subject of punishment. Another anonymous Freethought work
was Letters from an Egyptian Kaffir on a Visit to England in Search
of Religion. This was at first issued privately 1839, but afterwards
printed as a Reasoner tract. He also wrote The Pursuit of Truth,
1829, and a Theory of Reasoning, 1851. He was acquainted with both
James and John Stuart Mill, and shared in most of the views of the
philosophical Radicals of the period. Died 18 Jan. 1870, leaving
£90,000 to his native town.
Bailey (William S.), editor of the Liberal, published in Nashville,
Tennessee, was an Atheist up till the day of death, March, 1886. In
a slave-holding State, he was the earnest advocate of abolition.
Baillie (George), of Garnet Hill, Glasgow. Had been a sheriff in one
of the Scotch counties. He was a liberal subscriber to the Glasgow
Eclectic Institute. In 1854 he offered a prize for the best essay on
Christianity and Infidelity, which was gained by Miss Sara Hennell. In
1857 another prize was restricted to the question whether Jesus
prophesied the coming of the end of the world in the life-time of his
followers. It was gained by Mr. E. P. Meredith, and is incorporated
in his Prophet of Nazareth. In 1863 Mr. Baillie divested himself
of his fortune (£18,000) which was to be applied to the erection
and endowment of an institution to aid the culture of the operative
classes by means of free libraries and unsectarian schools, retaining
only the interest for himself as curator. He only survived a few years.
Baillière (Gustave-Germer), French scientific publisher, b. at Paris
26 Dec. 1837. Studied medicine, but devoted himself to bringing out
scientific publications such as the Library of Contemporary Philosophy,
and the International Scientific Series. He was elected 29 Nov. 1874 as
Republican and anti-clerical member of the Municipal Council of Paris.
Bain (Alexander) LL.D. Scotch philosopher, b. at Aberdeen in 1818. He
began life as a weaver but studied at Marischal College 1836-40, and
graduated M.A. in 1840. He then began to contribute to the Westminster
Review, and became acquainted with John Stuart Mill, whose Logic
he discussed in manuscript. In 1855 he published The Senses and
The Intellect, and in 1859 The Emotions and the Will, constituting
together a systematic exposition of the human mind. From 1860 to
1880 he occupied the Chair of Logic in the University of Aberdeen,
his accession being most obnoxious to the orthodox, and provoking
disorder among the students. In 1869 he received the degree of
LL.D. In addition to numerous educational works Dr. Bain published a
Compendium of Mental and Moral Science (1868), Mind and Body (1875),
and Education as a Science (1879), for the International Scientific
Series. In 1882 he published James Mill, a Biography, and John Stuart
Mill: a Criticism, with Personal Recollections. In 1881 he was elected
Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, and this honor was renewed
in 1884, in which year he published Practical Essays.
Bainham (James), martyr. He married the widow of Simon Fish, author
of the Supplycacion of Beggars, an attack upon the clergy of the
period. In 1531 he was accused of heresy, having among other things
denied transubstantiation, the confessional, and "the power of the
keys." It was asserted that he had said that he would as lief pray
to his wife as to "our lady," and that Christ was but a man. This
he denied, but admitted holding the salvation of unbelievers. He was
burnt 30 April, 1532.
Baissac (Jules), French littérateur, b. Vans, 1827, author of several
studies in philology and mythology. In 1878 he published Les Origines
de la Religion in three volumes, which have the honor of being put
upon the Roman Index. This was followed by l'Age de Dieu, a study
of cosmical periods and the feast of Easter. In 1882 he began to
publish Histoire de la Diablerie Chrétienne, the first part of which
is devoted to the person and "personnel" of the devil.
Bakunin (Mikhail Aleksandrovich), Russian Nihilist, b. Torshok
(Tver) 1814, of an ancient aristocratic family. He was educated at
St. Petersburg, and entered as an ensign in the artillery. Here he
became embued with revolutionary ideas. He went to Berlin in 1841,
studied the Hegelian philosophy, and published some philosophical
writings under the name of Jules Elisard. In '43 he visited Paris and
became a disciple of Proudhon. In '48 he was expelled from France
at the demand of Russia, whose government set the price of 10,000
silver roubles on his head, went to Dresden and became a member of the
insurrectionary government. He was arrested and condemned to death,
May '50, but his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. He
escaped into Austria, was again captured and sentenced to death,
but was handed over to Russia and deported to Siberia. After several
years' penal servitude he escaped, travelled over a thousand miles
under extreme hardship, reached the sea and sailed to Japan. Thence he
sailed to California, thence to New York and London, where with Herzen
he published the Kolokol. He took part in the establishment of the
International Society, but being at issue with Karl Marx abandoned
that body in 1873. He died at Berne 1 July 1876, leaving behind a
work on God and the State, both being vigorously attacked. Laveleye
writes of him as "the apostle of universal destruction."
Ball (William Platt), b. at Birmingham 28 Nov. 1844. Educated at
Birkbeck School, London. Became schoolmaster but retired rather
than teach religious doctrines. Matriculated at London University
1866. Taught pyrotechny in the Sultan's service 1870-71. Received
the order of the Medjidieh after narrow escape from death by the
bursting of a mortar. Upon his return published Poems from Turkey
(1872). Mr. Ball has contributed to the National Reformer since 1878
and since 1884 has been on the staff of the Freethinker. He has
published pamphlets on Religion in Schools, the Ten Commandments
and Mrs Besant's Socialism, and has compiled with Mr. Foote the
Bible Handbook. Mr. Ball is a close thinker and a firm supporter of
Evolutional Malthusianism, which he has ably defended in the pages
of Progress. He has of late been engaged upon the question: Are the
Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited?
Ballance (John), New Zealand statesman, b. Glenary, Antrim, Ireland,
March 1839. Going out to New Zealand he became a journalist and started
the Wanganui Herald. He entered Parliament in 1875 and became Colonial
Treasurer in '78. With Sir Robert Stout he has been a great support
to the Freethought cause in New Zealand.
Baltzer (Wilhelm Eduard). German rationalist, b. 24 Oct. 1814, at
Hohenleine in Saxony. He was educated as a Protestant minister, but
resigned and founded at Nordhausen in 1847 a free community. He took
part in the Parliament of Frankfort in '48; has translated the life
of Apollonius of Tyana, and is the author of a history of religion
and numerous other works. Died 24 June, 1887.
Bancel (François Désiré). French politician, b. Le Mastre,
2 Feb. 1822. Became an advocate. In 1849, he was elected to the
Legislative Assembly. After the coup d'état he retired to Brussels,
where he became Professor at the University. In 1869 he was elected
deputy at Paris in opposition to M. Ollivier. He translated the work
on Rationalism by Ausonio Franchi, and wrote on Mysteries, 1871,
besides many political works. Died 23 June, 1871.
Barbier (Edmond). French translator of the works of Darwin, Lubbock,
and Tylor. Died 1883.
Barbier d'Aucour (Jean). French critic and academician, b. Langres,
1642. Most of his writings are directed against the Jesuits. Died
Paris, 13 Sept. 1694.
Barlow (George). Poet, b. in London, 19 June, 1847. In his volumes,
Under the Dawn and Poems, Real and Ideal, he gives utterance to many
Freethought sentiments.
Barlow (Joel). American statesman, writer and poet, b. Reading,
Connecticut, 24 March, 1754. Served as a volunteer in the
revolutionary war, became a chaplain, but resigned that profession,
taking to literature. In England, in 1791, he published Advice to the
Privileged Orders. In France he translated Volney's Ruins of Empires,
and contributed to the political literature of the Revolution. Paine
entrusted him with the MS. of the first part of the Age of Reason. His
chief work is entitled the Columbiad, 1808. He was sent as minister
to France, 1811, and being involved in the misfortunes following the
retreat from Moscow, died near Cracow, Poland, 24 Dec. 1812.
Barni (Jules Romain). French philosophic writer, b. Lille, 1 June,
1818. He became secretary to Victor Cousin, and translated the works
of Kant into French. He contributed to La Liberté de Penser (1847-51)
and to l'Avenir (1855). During the Empire he lived in Switzerland
and published Martyrs de la Libre Pensée (1862), La Morale dans
la Démocratie (1864), and a work on the French Moralists of the
Eighteenth Century (1873). He was elected to the National Assembly,
1872; and to the Chamber of Deputies, 1876. Died at Mers, 4 July,
1878. A statue is erected to him at Amiens.
Barnout (Hippolyte). French architect and writer, b. Paris 1816,
published a Rational Calendar 1859 and 1860. In May 1870 he established
a journal entitled L'Athée, the Atheist, which the clerical journals
declared drew God's vengeance upon France. He is also author of a
work on aerial navigation.
Barot (François Odysse). French writer, b. at Mirabeau 1830. He
has been a journalist on several Radical papers, was secretary to
Gustave Flourens, and has written on the Birth of Jesus (1864) and
Contemporary Literature in England (1874).
Barrett (Thomas Squire). Born 9 Sept. 1842, of Quaker parents, both
grandfathers being ministers of that body; educated at Queenwood
College, obtained diploma of Associate in Arts from Oxford with honors
in Natural Science and Mathematics, contributed to the National
Reformer between 1865 and 1870, published an acute examination of
Gillespie's argument, à priori, for the existence of God (1869),
which in 1871 reached a second edition. He also wrote A New View
of Causation (1871), and an Introduction to Logic and Metyphysics
(1877). Mr. Barrett has been hon. sec. of the London Dialectical
Society, and edited a short-lived publication, The Present Day, 1886.
Barrier (F. M.). French Fourierist, b. Saint Etienne 1815, became
professor of medicine at Lyons, wrote A Sketch of the Analogy of Man
and Humanity (Lyons 1846), and Principles of Sociology (Paris 1867),
and an abridgment of this entitled Catechism of Liberal and Rational
Socialism. Died Montfort-L'Amaury 1870.
Barrillot (François). French author, b. of poor parents at Lyons in
1818. An orphan at seven years of age, he learnt to read from shop
signs, and became a printer and journalist. Many of his songs and
satires acquired popularity. He has also wrote a letter to Pope Pius
IX. on the OEcumenical Council (1871), signed Jean Populus, and a
philosophical work entitled Love is God. Died at Paris, 11 Dec. 1874.
Barthez (Paul Joseph), French physician, b. Montpelier 11 Dec. 1734. A
friend of D'Alembert, he became associate editor of the Journal des
Savants and Encyclopédie Méthodique. He was made consulting physician
to the king and a councillor of State. Shown by the Archbishop of
Sens a number of works relating to the rites of his see he said,
"These are the ceremonies of Sens, but can you show me the sense
[Sens] of ceremonies." His principal work is New Elements of the
Science of Man. Died 15 Oct. 1806.
Basedow (Johann Bernhard), German Rationalist and educational reformer,
b. at Hamburg 11 Sept. 1723. He studied theology at Leipsic, became
professor at the Academy of Sora, in Denmark, 1753-1761, and at
Altona, 1761-1768. While here he published Philalethea, the Grounds of
Religion, and other heterodox works, which excited so much prejudice
that he was in danger of being stoned. He devoted much attention to
improving methods of teaching. Died at Magdeburg 25 July, 1790.
Baskerville (John), famous printer, b. Sion Hill, Wolverley,
Worcestershire, 28 Jan. 1706. Lived at Birmingham. He was at
first a stone-mason, then made money as an artistic japanner, and
devoted it to perfecting the art of type-founding and printing. As
a printer-publisher he produced at his own risk beautiful editions
of Milton, Addison, Shaftesbury, Congreve, Virgil, Horace, Lucretius,
Terence, etc. He was made printer to Cambridge University 1758. Wilkes
once visited him and was "shocked at his infidelity" (!) He died
8 Jan. 1775, and was buried in a tomb in his own garden. He had
designed a monumental urn with this inscription: "Stranger, beneath
this cone in unconsecrated ground a friend to the liberties of
mankind directed his body to be inurned. May the example contribute
to emancipate thy mind from the idle fears of superstition and the
wicked arts of priesthood." His will expresses the utmost contempt
for Christianity. His type was appropriately purchased to produce a
complete edition of Voltaire.
Bassus (Aufidus). An Epicurean philosopher and friend of Seneca in
the time of Nero. Seneca praises his patience and courage in the
presence of death.
Bate (Frederick), Socialist, author of The Student 1842, a drama
in which the author's sceptical views are put forward. Mr. Bate
was one of the founders of the social experiment at New Harmony,
now Queenswood College, Hants, and engraved a view representing the
Owenite scheme of community.
Baudelaire (Charles Pierre), French poet, b. Paris, 9 April 1821,
the son of a distinguished friend of Cabanis and Condorcet. He
first became famous by the publication of Fleurs du Mal, 1857, in
which appeared Les Litanies de Satan. The work was prosecuted and
suppressed. Baudelaire translated some of the writings of E. A. Poe,
a poet whom he resembled much in life and character. The divine
beauty of his face has been celebrated by the French poet, Théodore
de Banville, and his genius in some magnificent stanzas by the English
poet, Algernon Swinburne. Died Paris 31 Aug. 1867.
Baudon (P. L.), French author of a work on the Christian Superstition,
published at Brussels in 1862 and dedicated to Bishop Dupanloup under
the pseudonym of "Aristide."
Bauer (Bruno), one of the boldest biblical critics of Germany,
b. Eisenberg, 6 Sept. 1809. Educated at the University of Berlin,
in 1834 he received a professorship of theology. He first attained
celebrity by a review of the Life of Jesus by Strauss (1835). This
was followed by his Journal of Speculative Theology and Critical
Exposition of the Religion of the Old Testament. He then proceeded
to a Review of the Gospel History, upon the publication of which
(1840) he was deprived of his professorship at Bonn. To this followed
Christianity Unveiled (1843), which was destroyed at Zurich before
its publication. This work continued his opposition to religion,
which was carried still further in ironical style in his Proclamation
of the Day of Judgement concerning Hegel the Atheist. Bauer's heresy
deepened with age, and in his Review of the Gospels and History of
their Origin (1850), to which Apostolical History is a supplement,
he attacked the historical truth of the New Testament narratives. In
his Review of the Epistles attributed to St. Paul (1852) he tries to
show that the first four epistles, which had hardly ever before been
questioned, were not written by Paul, but are the production of the
second century. In his Christ and the Cæsars he shows the influence
of Seneca and Greco-Roman thought upon early Christianity. He died
near Berlin, 13 April, 1882.
Bauer (Edgar), b. Charlottenburg, 7 Oct. 1820, brother of the
preceding, collaborated in some of his works. His brochure entitled
Bruno Bauer and his Opponents (1842) was seized by the police. For
his next publication, The Strife of Criticism with Church and State
(1843), he was imprisoned for four years. He has also written on
English freedom, Capital, etc.
Baume-Desdossat (Jacques François, de la), b. 1705, a Canon of
Avignon who wrote La Christiade (1753), a satire on the gospels,
in which Jesus is tempted by Mary Magdalene. It was suppressed by
the French Parliament and the author fined. He died 30 April, 1756.
Baur (Ferdinand Christian von), distinguished theological critic, b. 21
June, 1792, near Stuttgart. His father was a clergyman. He was educated
at Tübingen, where in 1826 he became professor of Church history. Baur
is the author of numerous works on dogmatic and historic theology, in
which he subverts all the fundamental positions of Christianity. He was
an Hegelian Pantheist. Among his more important works are Christianity
and the Church in the First Three Centuries and Paul: His Life and
Works. These are translated into English. He acknowledges only four
of the epistles of Paul and the Revelation as genuine products of
the apostolic age, and shows how very far from simplicity were the
times and doctrines of primitive Christianity. After a life of great
literary activity he died at Tübingen, 2 Dec. 1860.
Bayle (Pierre), learned French writer, b. 18 Nov. 1647, at Carlat,
France, where his father was a Protestant minister. He was converted
to Romanism while studying at the Jesuit College, Toulouse, 1669. His
Romanism only lasted seventeen months. He abjured, and fled to
Switzerland, becoming a sceptic, as is evident from Thoughts on the
Comet, in which he compares the supposed mischiefs of Atheism with
those of fanaticism, and from many articles in his famous Dictionnaire
Critique, a work still of value for its curious learning and shrewd
observation. In his journal Nouvelles de la République des Lettres
he advocates religious toleration on the ground of the difficulty of
distinguishing truth from error. His criticism of Maimbourg's History
of Calvinism was ordered to be burnt by the hangman. Jurieu persecuted
him, and he was ordered to be more careful in preparing the second
edition of his dictionary. He died at Rotterdam, 28 Dec. 1706. Bayle
has been called the father of free discussion in modern times.
Bayrhoffer (Karl Theodor), German philosopher, b. Marburg, 14 Oct.,
1812, wrote The Idea and History of Philosophy (1838), took part in
the revolution of '48, emigrated to America, and wrote many polemical
works. Died near Monroe, Wisconsin, 3 Feb. 1888.
Beauchamp (Philip). See Bentham and Grote.
Beausobre (Louis de), b. at Berlin, 22 Aug. 1730, was adopted by
Frederick the Great out of esteem for his father, Isaac Beausobre,
the author of the History of Manicheanism. He was educated first at
Frankfort-on-Oder, then at Paris. He wrote on the scepticism of the
wise (Pyrrhonisme du Sage, Berlin, 1754), a work condemned to be burnt
by the Parliament of Paris. He also wrote anonymously The Dreams of
Epicurus, and an essay on Happiness (Berlin, 1758), reprinted with
the Social System of Holbach in 1795. Died at Berlin, 3 Dec. 1783.
Bebel (Ferdinand August). German Socialist, b. Cologne, 22
Feb. 1840. Brought up as a turner in Leipsic. Since '63, he became
distinguished as an exponent of social democracy, and was elected to
the German Reichstag in '71. In the following year he was condemned (6
March) to two years' imprisonment for high treason. He was re-elected
in '74. His principal work is Woman in the Past, Present and Future
which is translated by H. B. A. Walther, 1885. He has also written on
the Mohammedan Culture Period (1884) and on Christianity and Socialism.
Beccaria (Bonesana Cesare), an Italian marquis and writer, b. at Milan,
15 March, 1738. A friend of Voltaire, who praised his treatise on
Crimes and Punishments (1769), a work which did much to improve the
criminal codes of Europe. Died Milan, 28 Nov. 1794.
Beesly (Edward Spencer), Positivist, b. Feckenham, Worcestershire,
1831. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he took B.A. in 1854,
and M.A. in '57. Appointed Professor of History, University College,
London, in 1860. He is one of the translators of Comte's System of
Positive Polity, and has published several pamphlets on political
and social questions.
Beethoven (Ludwig van), one of the greatest of musical composers,
b. Bonn 16 Dec. 1770. His genius early displayed itself, and at the
age of five he was set to study the works of Handel and Bach. His many
compositions are the glory of music. They include an opera "Fidelio,"
two masses, oratorios, symphonies, concertos, overtures and sonatas,
and are characterised by penetrating power, rich imagination, intense
passion, and tenderness. When about the age of forty he became totally
deaf, but continued to compose till his death at Vienna, 26 March,
1827. He regarded Goethe with much the same esteem as Wagner showed
for Schopenhauer, but he disliked his courtliness. His Republican
sentiments are well known, and Sir George Macfarren, in his life in
the Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography, speaks of him as a
"Freethinker," and says the remarkable mass in C. "might scarcely
have proceeded from an entirely orthodox thinker." Sir George Grove,
in his Dictionary of Music and Musicians, says: "Formal religion he
apparently had none," and "the Bible does not appear to have been one
of his favorite books." At the end of his arrangement of "Fidelio"
Moscheles had written, "Fine. With God's help." To this Beethoven
added, "O man, help thyself."
Bekker (Balthasar), Dutch Rationalist, b. Metslawier (Friesland)
20 March, 1634. He studied at Gronigen, became a doctor of divinity,
and lived at Francker, but was accused of Socinianism, and had to fly
to Amsterdam, where he raised another storm by his World Bewitched
(1691), a work in which witchcraft and the power of demons are
denied. His book, which contains much curious information, raised
a host of adversaries, and he was deposed from his place in the
Church. It appeared in English in 1695. Died, Amsterdam, 11 June,
1698. Bekker was remarkably ugly, and he is said to have "looked like
the devil, though he did not believe in him."
Belinsky (Vissarion Grigorevich), Russian critic, b. Pensa 1811,
educated at Pensa and Moscow, adopted the Pantheistic philosophy of
Hegel and Schelling. Died St. Petersburg, 28 May, 1848. His works
were issued in 12 volumes, 1857-61.
Bell (Thomas Evans), Major in Madras Army, which he entered in 1842. He
was employed in the suppression of Thugee. He wrote the Task of To-Day,
1852, and assisted the Reasoner, both with pen and purse, writing over
the signature "Undecimus." He contemplated selling his commission to
devote himself to Freethought propaganda, but by the advice of his
friends was deterred. He returned to India at the Mutiny. In January,
1861, he became Deputy-Commissioner of Police at Madras. He retired
in July, 1865, and has written many works on Indian affairs. Died 12
Sept. 1887.
Bell (William S.), b. in Allegheny city, Pennsylvania, 10
Feb. 1832. Brought up as a Methodist minister, was denounced for
mixing politics with religion, and for his anti-slavery views. In
1873 he preached in the Universalist Church of New Bedford, but in
Dec. '74, renounced Christianity and has since been a Freethought
lecturer. He has published a little book on the French Revolution,
and some pamphlets.
Bender (Wilhelm), German Rationalist, professor of theology at Bonn,
b. 15 Jan. 1845, who created a sensation at the Luther centenary,
1883, by declaring that the work of the Reformation was incompleted
and must be carried on by the Rationalists.
Bennett (De Robigne Mortimer), founder and editor of the New York
Truthseeker, b. of poor parents, Springfield (N.Y.), 23 Dec. 1818. At
the age of fifteen he joined the Shaker Society in New Lebanon. Here
he stayed thirteen years and then married. Having lost faith in the
Shaker creed, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he started a
drug store. The perusal of Paine, Volney, and similar works made him
a Freethinker. In 1873, his letters to a local journal in answer to
some ministers having been refused, he resolved to start a paper of
his own. The result was the Truthseeker, which in January, 1876 became
a weekly, and has since become one of the principal Freethought organs
in America. In 1879 he was sentenced to thirteen months' imprisonment
for sending through the post a pamphlet by Ezra H. Heywood on the
marriage question. A tract, entitled An Open Letter to Jesus Christ,
was read in court to bias the jury. A petition bearing 200,000
names was presented to President Hayes asking his release, but was
not acceded to. Upon his release his admirers sent him for a voyage
round the world. He wrote A Truthseeker's Voyage Round the World,
Letters from Albany Penitentiary, Answers to Christian Questions and
Arguments, two large volumes on The Gods, another on the World's Sages,
Infidels and Thinkers, and published his discussions with Humphrey,
Mair, and Teed, and numerous tracts. He died 6 Dec. 1882.
Bentham (Jeremy), writer on ethics, jurisprudence, and political
economy, b. 15 Feb. 1748. A grand uncle named Woodward was the
publisher of Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation. Was educated
at Westminster and Oxford, where he graduated M.A. 1767. Bentham
is justly regarded as the father of the school of philosophical
Radicalism. In philosophy he is the great teacher of Utilitarianism;
as a jurist he did much to disclose the defects of and improve our
system of law. Macaulay says he "found jurisprudence a gibberish and
left it a science." His most pronounced Freethought work was that
written in conjunction with Grote, published as An Analysis of the
Influence of Natural Religion, by Philip Beauchamp, 1822. Among his
numerous other works we can only mention Deontology, or the Science
of Mortality, an exposition of utilitarianism; Church of Englandism
and its Catechism Examined; Not Paul, but Jesus, published under the
pseudonym of Gamaliel Smith. Died 6 June, 1832, leaving his body for
the purposes of science.
Béranger (Jean Pierre de), celebrated French lyrical poet,
b. Paris, 19 Aug. 1780. His satire on the Bourbons twice ensured
for him imprisonment. He was elected to the Constituant Assembly
1848. Béranger has been compared not inaptly to Burns. All his songs
breathe the spirit of liberty, and several have been characterised
as impious. He died 16 July, 1857.
Bergel (Joseph), Jewish Rationalist, author of Heaven and Its Wonders,
Leipsic, 1881, and Mythology of the Ancient Hebrews, 1882.
Berger (Moriz), author of a work on Materialism in Conflict with
Spiritualism and Idealism, Trieste, 1883.
Bergerac de (Savinien Cyrano). See Cyrano.
Bergk (Johann Adam), German philosopher, b. Hainechen, Zeitz, 27 June,
1769; became a private teacher at Leipsic and wrote many works, both
under his own name and pseudonyms. He published the Art of Thinking,
Leipsic, 1802, conducted the Asiatic Magazine, 1806, and wrote under
the name of Frey the True Religion, "recommended to rationalists
and destined for the Radical cure of supernaturalists, mystics,
etc." Died Leipsic, 27 Oct. 1834.
Bergk (Theodor), German humanist, son of the above, b. Leipsic,
22 May, 1812, author of a good History of Greek Literature, 1872.
Berigardus (Claudius), or Beauregard (Claude Guillermet), French
physician and philosopher, b. at Moulins about 1591. He became a
professor at Pisa from 1628 till 1640, and then went to Padua. His
Circulus Pisanus, published in 1643, was considered an Atheistic
work. In the form of a dialogue he exhibits the various hypotheses
of the formation of the world. The work was forbidden and is very
rare. His book entitled Dubitationes in Dialogum Galilæi, also brought
on him a charge of scepticism. Died in 1664.
Berkenhout (Dr. John), physician and miscellaneous writer, b. 1731,
the son of a Dutch merchant who settled at Leeds. In early life he
had been a captain both in the Prussian and English service, and
in 1765 took his M.D. degree at Leyden. He published many books on
medical science, a synopsis of the natural history of Great Britain
and Ireland, and several humorous pieces, anonymously. His principal
work is entitled Biographia Literaria, a biographical history of
English literature, 1777. Throughout the work he loses no opportunity
of displaying his hostility to the theologians, and is loud in his
praises of Voltaire. Died 3 April, 1791.
Berlioz (Louis Hector). The most original of French musical composers,
b. Isère, 11 Dec. 1803. He obtained fame by his dramatic symphony
of Romeo and Juliet (1839), and was made chevalier of the Legion
of Honor. Among his works is one on the Infancy of Christ. In his
Memoirs he relates how he scandalised Mendelssohn "by laughing at
the Bible." Died Paris, 9 March, 1869.
Bernard (Claude), French physiologist, b. Saint Julien 12 July,
1813. Went to Paris 1832, studied medicine, became member of the
Institute and professor at the Museum of Natural History, wrote
La Science Experimentale, and other works on physiology. Died 10
Feb. 1878, and was buried at the expense of the Republic. Paul Bert
calls him the introducer of determinism in the domain of physiology.
Bernier (Abbé). See Holbach.
Bernier (François), French physician and traveller, b. Angers about
1625. He was a pupil of Gassendi, whose works he abridged, and he
defended Descartes against the theologians. He is known as le joli
philsophe. In 1654 he went to Syria and Egypt, and from thence to
India, where he became physician to Aurungzebe. On his return he
published an account of his travels and of the Empire of the Great
Mogul, and died at Paris 22 Sept. 1688.
Bernstein (Aaron), a rationalist, b. of Jewish parents Dantzic
1812. His first work was a translation of the Song of Songs, published
under the pseudonym of A. Rebenstein (1834). He devoted himself
to natural science and published works on The Rotation of Planets,
Humboldt and the Spirit of the Time, etc. His essay on The Origin of
the Legends of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was translated by a German
lady and published by Thomas Scott of Ramsgate (1872). Died Berlin,
12 Feb. 1884.
Berquin (Louis de), French martyr, b. in Artois, 1489. Erasmus,
his friend, says his great crime was openly professing hatred of
the monks. In 1523 his works were ordered to be burnt, and he was
commanded to abjure his heresies. Sentence of perpetual banishment
was pronounced on him on April 16, 1529. He immediately appealed to
the Parliament. His appeal was heard and rejected on the morning of
the 17th. The Parliament reformed the judgment and condemned him to
be burnt alive, and the sentence was carried out on the same afternoon
at the Place de la Grève. He died with great constancy and resolution.
Bert (Paul), French scientist and statesman, b. at Auxerre, 17
Oct. 1833. In Paris he studied both law and medicine, and after
being Professor in the Faculty of Science at Bordeaux, he in 1869
obtained the chair of physiology in the Faculty of Science at Paris,
and distinguished himself by his scientific experiments. In '70 he
offered his services to the Government of National Defence, and in
'72 was elected to the National Assembly, where he signalised himself
by his Radical opinions. Gambetta recognised his worth and made him
Minister of Public Instruction, in which capacity he organised French
education on a Secular basis. His First Year of Scientific Instruction
is almost universally used in the French primary schools. It has been
translated into English by Josephine Clayton (Madame Paul Bert). His
strong anti-clerical views induced much opposition. He published
several scientific and educational works and attacked The Morality of
the Jesuits, '80. In '86 he was appointed French Resident Minister at
Tonquin, where he died 11 Nov. '86. His body was brought over to France
and given a State funeral, a pension being also accorded to his widow.
Bertani (Agostino), Italian patriot, b. 19 Oct. 1812, became a
physician at Genoa, took part with Garibaldi and Mazzini, organising
the ambulance services. A declared Freethinker, he was elected deputy
to the Italian Parliament. Died Rome 30 April, '86.
Berti (Antonio), Italian physician, b. Venice 20 June, 1816. Author
of many scientific works, member of the Venice Municipal Council and
of the Italian Senate. Died Venice 24 March, 1879.
Bertillon (Louis Adolphe), French Anthropologist and physician,
b. Paris 1 April, 1821. His principal work is a statistical study
of the French population, Paris '74. He edits in conjunction with
A. Hovelacque and others, the Dictionary of the Anthropological
Sciences ('83 etc.) His sons, Jacques (b. '51) and Alphonse (b. '53),
prosecute similar studies.
Bertrand de Saint-Germain (Guillaume Scipion), French physician,
b. Puy-en-Velay 25 Oct. 1810. Became M.D. 1840, wrote on The
Original Diversity of Human Races (1847), and a materialistic work
on Manifestation of Life and Intelligence through Organisation,
1848. Has also written on Descartes as a Physiologist, 1869.
Berwick (George J.) M.D., appointed surgeon to the East India Company
in 1828, retired in '52. Author of Awas-i-hind, or a Voice from the
Ganges; being a solution of the true source of Christianity. By an
Indian Officer; London, 1861. Also of a work on The Forces of the
Universe, '70. Died about 1872.
Besant (Annie) née Wood. B. London, 1 Oct. 1847. Educated in
Evangelicalism by Miss Marryat, sister of novelist, but turned
to the High Church by reading Pusey and others. In "Holy Week"
of 1866 she resolved to write the story of the week from the
gospel. Their contradictions startled her but she regarded her doubts
as sin. In Dec. '67 she married the Rev. F. Besant, and read and
wrote extensively. The torment a child underwent in whooping-cough
caused doubts as to the goodness of God. A study of Greg's Creed
of Christendom and Arnold's Literature and Dogma increased her
scepticism. She became acquainted with the Rev. C. Voysey and Thomas
Scott, for whom she wrote an Essay on the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth,
"by the wife of a beneficed clergyman." This led to her husband
insisting on her taking communion or leaving. She chose the latter
course, taking by agreement her daughter with her. Thrown on her own
resources, she wrote further tracts for Mr. Scott, reprinted in My Path
to Atheism ('77). Joined the National Secular Society, and in '74 wrote
in the National Reformer over the signature of "Ajax." Next year she
took to the platform and being naturally eloquent soon won her way to
the front rank as a Freethought lecturess, and became joint editor
of the National Reformer. Some lectures on the French Revolution
were republished in book form. In April, '77, she was arrested
with Mr. Bradlaugh for publishing the Fruits of Philosophy. After a
brilliant defence, the jury exonerated the defendants from any corrupt
motives, and although they were sentenced the indictment was quashed
in Feb. '78, and the case was not renewed. In May, '78, a petition
in Chancery was presented to deprive Mrs. Besant of her child on the
ground of her Atheistic and Malthusian views. Sir G. Jessell granted
the petition. In '80 Mrs. Besant matriculated at the London University
and took 1st B.Sc. with honors in '82. She has debated much and issued
many pamphlets to be found in Theological Essays and Debates. She
wrote the second part of the Freethinkers' Text Book dealing with
Christian evidence; has written on the Sins of the Church, 1886, and
the Evolution of Society. She has translated Jules Soury's Religion
of Israel, and Jesus of the Gospels; Dr. L. Büchner on the Influence
of Heredity and Mind in Animals, and from the fifteenth edition of
Force and Matter. From '83 to '88 she edited Our Corner, and since
'85 has given much time to Socialist propaganda, and has written many
Socialist pamphlets. In Dec. '88, Mrs. Besant was elected a member
of the London School Board.
Beverland (Hadrianus), Dutch classical scholar and nephew of Isaac
Vossius, b. Middleburg 1654. He took the degree of doctor of law and
became an advocate, but devoted himself to literature. He was at the
university of Oxford in 1672. His treatise on Original Sin, Peccatum
Originale (Eleutheropoli, 1678), in which he contends that the sin
of Adam and Eve was sexual inclination, caused a great outcry. It
was burnt, Beverland was imprisoned and his name struck from the
rolls of Leyden University. He wrote some other curious works and
died about 1712.
Bevington (Louisa S.), afterwards Guggenberger; English poetess and
authoress of Key Notes, 1879; Poems, Lyrics and Sonnets, '82; wrote
"Modern Atheism and Mr. Mallock" in the Nineteenth Century (Oct. and
Dec. '79), and on "The Moral Demerits of Orthodoxy" in Progress,
Sept. '84.
Beyle (Marie Henri), French man of letters, famous under the
name of de Stendhal, b. Grenoble, 23 Jan. 1783. Painter, soldier,
merchant and consul, he travelled largely, a wandering life being
congenial to his broad and sceptical spirit. His book, De l'Amour
is his most notable work. He was an original and gifted critic and
romancer. Balzac esteemed him highly. He died at Paris, 23 March,
1842. Prosper Merimée has published his correspondence. One of his
sayings was "Ce qui excuse Dieu, c'est qu'il n'existe pas"--God's
excuse is that he does not exist.
Bianchi (Angelo), known as Bianchi-Giovini (Aurelio) Italian man
of letters, b. of poor parents at Como, 25 Nov. 1799. He conducted
several papers in various parts of Piedmont and Switzerland. His Life
of Father Paoli Sarpi, 1836, was put on the Index, and thenceforward
he was in constant strife with the Roman Church. For his attacks on
the clergy in Il Republicano, at Lugano, he was proscribed, and had to
seek refuge at Zurich, 1839. He went thence to Milan and there wrote
a History of the Hebrews, a monograph on Pope Joan, and an account
of the Revolution. His principal works are the History of the Popes
until the great schism of the West (Turin, 1850-64) and a Criticism
of the Gospels, 1853, which has gone through several editions. Died
16 May, 1862.
Biandrata or Blandrata (Giorgio), Italian anti-trinitarian reformer,
b. Saluzzo about 1515. Graduated in arts and medicine at Montpellier,
1533. He was thrown into the prison of the Inquisition at Pavia,
but contrived to escape to Geneva, where he become obnoxious to
Calvin. He left Geneva in 1558 and went to Poland where he became a
leader of the Socinian party. He was assassinated 1591.
Bichat (Marie François Xavier), a famous French anatomist and
physiologist, b. Thoirette (Jura), 11 Nov. 1771. His work on the
Physiology of Life and Death was translated into English. He died a
martyr to his zeal for science, 22 July, 1802.
Biddle or Bidle (John), called the father of English Unitarianism,
b. Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, 14 Jan. 1615. He took his
M.A. degree at Oxford, 1641, and became master of the Gloucester
Grammar School, but lost the situation for denying the Trinity. He
was also imprisoned there for some time, and afterwards cited at
Westminster. He appealed to the public in defence, and his pamphlet
was ordered to be burnt by the hangman, 6 Sept. 1647. He was detained
in prison till 1652, after which he published several pamphlets, and
was again imprisoned in 1654. In Oct. 1655, Cromwell banished him to
the Scilly Isles, making him an allowance. He returned to London 1658,
but after the publication of the Acts of Uniformity was again seized,
and died in prison 22 Sept. 1662.
Bierce (M. H.) see Grile (Dod).
Billaud-Varenne (Jean Nicolas), French conventionalist b. La Rochelle,
23 April, 1756. About 1785 became advocate to Parliament; denounced
the government and clergy 1789. Proposed abolition of the monarchy
1 July, 1791, and wrote Elements of Republicanism, 1793. Withdrew
from Robespierre after the feast of the Supreme Being, saying "Thou
beginnest to sicken me with thy Supreme Being." Was exiled 1 April,
1795, and died at St. Domingo, 3 June, 1819.
Bion, of Borysthenes, near the mouth of the Dneiper. A Scythian
philosopher who flourished about 250 B.C. He was sold as a slave
to a rhetorician, who afterwards gave him freedom and made him his
heir. Upon this he went to Athens and applied himself to the study
of philosophy. He had several teachers, but attached himself to
Theodorus the Atheist. He was famous for his knowledge of music,
poetry, and philosophy. Some shrewd sayings of his are preserved,
as that "only the votive tablets of the preserved are seen in the
temples, not those of the drowned" and "it is useless to tear our
hair when in grief since sorrow is not cured by baldness."
Birch (William John), English Freethinker, b. London 4
Jan. 1811. Educated at Baliol College, Oxford, graduated M.A. at
New Inn Hall. Author of An Inquiry into the Philosophy and Religion
of Shakespeare, 1848; An Inquiry into the Philosophy and Religion
of the Bible, 1856; this work was translated into Dutch by "Rudolf
Charles;" Paul an Idea, not a Fact; and the Real and Ideal. In the
stormy time of '42 Mr. Birch did much to support the prosecuted
publications. He brought out the Library of Reason and supported
The Reasoner and Investigator with both pen and purse. Mr. Birch has
resided much in Italy and proved himself a friend to Italian unity
and Freedom. He is a member of the Italian Asiatic Society. Mr. Birch
has been a contributor to Notes and Queries and other journals,
and has devoted much attention to the early days of Christianity,
having many manuscripts upon the subject.
Bithell (Richard), Agnostic, b. Lewes, Sussex, 22 March 1821, of pious
parents. Became teacher of mathematics and chemistry. Is Ph.D. of
Gottingen and B.Sc. of London University. In '65 he entered the
service of the Rothschilds. Has written Creed of a Modern Agnostic,
1883; and Agnostic Problems, 1887.
Björnson (Björnstjerne), Norwegian writer, b. Quickne 8 Dec. 1832. His
father was a Lutheran clergyman. Has done much to create a national
literature for Norway. For his freethinking opinions he was obliged
to leave his country and reside in Paris. Many of his tales have been
translated into English. In 1882 Björnson published at Christiania,
with a short introduction, a resumé of C. B. Waite's History of the
Christian Religion, under the title of Whence come the Miracles of the
New Testament? This was the first attack upon dogmatic Christianity
published in Norway, and created much discussion. The following year
he published a translation of Colonel Ingersoll's article in the North
American Review upon the "Christian Religion," with a long preface,
in which he attacks the State Church and Monarchy. The translation
was entitled Think for Yourself. The first edition rapidly sold out
and a second one appeared. He has since, both in speech and writing,
repeatedly avowed his Freethought, and has had several controversies
with the clergy.
Blagosvyetlov (Grigorevich E.), Russian author, b. in the Caucasus,
1826. Has written on Shelley, Buckle, and Mill, whose Subjection
of Women he translated into Russian. He edited a magazine Djelo
(Cause). Died about 1885.
Blanqui (Louis Auguste), French politician, b. near Nice, 7 Feb. 1805,
a younger brother of Jerome Adolphe Blanqui, the economist. Becoming
a Communist, his life was spent in conspiracy and imprisonment
under successive governments. In '39 he was condemned to death, but
his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life, and was subject to
brutal treatment till the revolution of '48 set him at liberty. He
was soon again imprisoned. In '65 he wrote some remarkable articles
on Monotheism in Le Candide. After the revolution of 4 Sept. '70,
Blanqui demanded the suppression of worship. He was again imprisoned,
but was liberated and elected member of the Commune, and arrested by
Thiers. In his last imprisonment he wrote a curious book, Eternity
and the Stars, in which he argues from the eternity and infinity of
matter. Died Paris, 31 Dec. 1880. Blanqui took as his motto "Ni Dieu
ni maître"--Neither God nor master.
Blasche (Bernhard Heinrich), German Pantheist, b. Jena 9 April,
1776. His father was a professor of theology and philosophy. He wrote
Kritik des Modernen Geisterglaubens (Criticism of Modern Ghost Belief),
Philosophische Unsterblichkeitslehre (Teaching of Philosophical
Immortality), and other works. Died near Gotha 26 Nov. 1832.
Blignieres (Célestin de), French Positivist, of the Polytechnic
school. Has written a popular exposition of Positive philosophy and
religion, Paris 1857; The Positive Doctrine, 1867; Studies of Positive
Morality, 1868; and other works.
Blind (Karl), German Republican, b. Mannheim, 4 Sept. 1826. Studied
at Heidelberg and Bonn. In 1848 he became a revolutionary leader
among the students and populace, was wounded at Frankfort, and
proscribed. In Sept. '48 he led the second republican revolution in
the Black Forest. He was made prisoner and sentenced to eight year's
imprisonment. In the spring of '49 he was liberated by the people
breaking open his prison. Being sent on a mission to Louis Napoleon,
then president of the French Republic at Paris, he was arrested and
banished from France. He went to Brussels, but since '52 has lived
in in England, where he has written largely on politics, history,
and mythology. His daughter Mathilde, b. at Mannheim, opened her
literary career by publishing a volume of poems in 1867 under the
name of Claude Lake. She has since translated Straus's Old Faith and
the New, and written the volumes on George Eliot and Madame Roland
in the Eminent Women series.
Blount (Charles), English Deist of noble family, b. at Holloway 27
April, 1654. His father, Sir Henry Blount, probably shared in his
opinions, and helped him in his anti-religious work, Anima Mundi,
1678. This work Bishop Compton desired to see suppressed. In 1680 he
published Great is Diana of the Ephesians, or the Origin of Idolatry,
and the two first books of Apollonius Tyanius, with notes, in which
he attacks priestcraft and superstition. This work was condemned and
suppressed. Blount also published The Oracles of Reason, a number
of Freethought Essays. By his Vindication of Learning and Liberty
of the Press, and still more by his hoax on Bohun entitled William
and Mary Conquerors, he was largely instrumental in doing away with
the censorship of the press. He shot himself, it is said, because
he could not marry his deceased wife's sister (August, 1693). His
miscellaneous works were printed in one volume, 1695.
Blumenfeld (J. C.), wrote The New Ecce Homo or the Self Redemption of
Man, 1839. He is also credited with the authorship of The Existence of
Christ Disproved in a series of Letters by "A German Jew," London,
1841.
Boerne (Ludwig), German man of letters and politician, b. Frankfort
22 May, 1786. In 1818 he gave up the Jewish religion, in which he had
been bred, nominally for Protestantism, but really he had, like his
friend Heine, become a Freethinker. He wrote many works in favor of
political liberty and translated Lammenais' Paroles d'un Croyant. Died
12 Feb. 1837.
Bodin (Jean), French political writer, b. Angers 1530. He studied
at Toulouse and is said to have been a monk but turned to the law,
and became secretary to the Duc d'Alençon. His book De la Republique
is highly praised by Hallam, and is said to have contained the germ of
Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws." He wrote a work on demonomania, in
which he seems to have believed, but in his Colloquium Heptaplomeron
coloquies of seven persons: a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Calvinist, a
Pagan, a Muhammadan, a Jew, and a Deist, which he left in manuscript,
he put some severe attacks on Christianity. Died of the plague at
Laon in 1596.
Boggis (John) is mentioned by Edwards in his Gangrena, 1645, as an
Atheist and disbeliever in the Bible.
Boichot (Jean Baptiste), b. Villier sur Suize 20 Aug. 1820, entered
the army. In '49 he was chosen representative of the people. After
the coup d'état he came to England, returned to France in '54,
was arrested and imprisoned at Belle Isle. Since then he has lived
at Brussels, where he has written several works and is one of the
council of International Freethinkers.
Boindin (Nicolas) French litterateur, wit, playwright and academician,
b. Paris 29 May, 1676. He publicly professed Atheism, and resorted
with other Freethinkers to the famous café Procope. There, in order to
speak freely, they called the soul Margot, religion Javotte, liberty
Jeanneton, and God M. de l'Etre. One day a spy asked Boindin, "Who
is this M. de l'Etre with whom you seem so displeased?" "Monsieur,"
replied Boindin, "he is a police spy." Died 30 Nov. 1751. His corpse
was refused "Christian burial."
Boissiere (Jean Baptiste Prudence), French writer, b. Valognes
Dec. 1806, was for a time teacher in England. He compiled an analogical
dictionary of the French language. Under the name of Sièrebois he
has published the Autopsy of the Soul and a work on the foundations
of morality, which he traces to interest. He has also written a book
entitled The Mechanism of Thought, '84.
Boissonade (J. A.), author of The Bible Unveiled, Paris, 1871.
Boito (Arrigo), Italian poet and musician, b. at Padua, whose opera
"Mefistofele," has created considerable sensation by its boldness.
Bolingbroke (Henry Saint John) Lord, English statesman and philosopher,
b. at Battersea, 1 Oct. 1672. His political life was a stormy
one. He was the friend of Swift and of Pope, who in his Essay on Man
avowedly puts forward the views of Saint John. He died at Battersea
12 Dec. 1751, leaving by will his MSS. to David Mallet, who in 1754
published his works, which included Essays Written to A. Pope, Esq.,
on Religion and Philosophy, in which he attacks Christianity with
both wit and eloquence. Bolingbroke was a Deist, believing in God
but scornfully rejecting revelation. He much influenced Voltaire,
who regarded him with esteem.
Bonavino (Francesco Cristoforo) see Franchi (Ausonio).
Boni (Filippo de), Italian man of letters, b. Feltre, 1820. Editor of
a standard Biography of Artists, published at Venice, 1840. He also
wrote on the Roman Church and Italy and on Reason and Dogma, Siena,
'66, and contributed to Stefanoni's Libero Pensiero. De Boni was
elected deputy to the Italian Parliament. He has written on "Italian
Unbelief in the Middle Ages" in the Annuario Filosofico del Libero
Pensiero, '68.
Boniface VIII., Pope (Benedetto Gaetano), elected head of Christendom,
24 Dec. 1294. During his quarrel with Philip the Fair of France charges
were sworn on oath against Pope Boniface that he neither believed in
the Trinity nor in the life to come, that he said the Virgin Mary
"was no more a virgin than my mother"; that he did not observe the
fasts of the Church, and that he spoke of the cardinals, monks,
and friars as hypocrites. It was in evidence that the Pope had said
"God may do the worst with me that he pleases in the future life; I
believe as every educated man does, the vulgar believe otherwise. We
have to speak as they do, but we must believe and think with the
few." Died 11 Oct. 1303.
Bonnycastle (John), mathematician, b. Whitchurch, Bucks, about
1750. He wrote several works on elementary mathematics and became
Professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich,
where he died 15 May, 1821. He was a friend of Fuseli, and private
information assures me he was a Freethinker.
Booms (Marinus Adriaansz), Dutch Spinozist, a shoemaker by trade,
who wrote early in the eighteenth century, and on 1 Jan. 1714,
was banished.
Bonnot de Condillac (Etienne) see Condillac.
Bonstetten (Karl Victor von), Swiss Deist, b. Berne, 3 Sept
1745. Acquainted with Voltaire and Rousseau he went to Leyden and
England to finish his education. Among his works are Researches on
the Nature and Laws of the Imagination, 1807; and Studies on Man,
1821. Died Geneva, 3 Feb. 1832.
Borde (Frédéric), editor of La Philosophie de l'Avenir, Paris, 1875,
etc. Born La Rochelle 1841. Has written on Liberty of Instruction, etc.
Born (Ignaz von) baron, b. Carlsruhe, 26 Dec. 1742. Bred by the
Jesuits, he became an ardent scientist and a favorite of the
Empress Marie Theresa, under whose patronage he published works
on Mineralogy. He was active as a Freemason, and Illuminati, and
published with the name Joannes Physiophilus a stinging illustrated
satire entitled Monchalogia, or the natural history of monks.
Bosc (Louis Augustin Guillaume), French naturalist, b. Paris, 29
Jan. 1759; was tutor and friend to Madame Roland whose Memoirs he
published. He wrote many works on natural history. Died 10 July, 1828.
Boucher (E. Martin), French writer, b. Beaulieu, 1809; contributed to
the Rationalist of Geneva, where he died 1882. Author of a work on
Revelation and Rationalism, entitled Search for the Truth, Avignon,
1884.
Bougainville (Louis Antoine de) Count, the first French voyager
who made the tour around the world; b. Paris, 11 Nov. 1729. Died 31
Aug. 1811. He wrote an interesting account of his travels.
Bouillier (Francisque), French philosopher, b. Lyons 12 July 1813, has
written several works on psychology, and contributed to la Liberté de
Penser. His principal work is a History of the Cartesian Philosophy. He
is a member of the Institute and writes in the leading reviews.
Bouis (Casimir), French journalist, b. Toulon 1848, edited La Libre
Pensée and wrote a satire on the Jesuits entitled Calottes et Soutanes,
1870. Sent to New Caledonia for his participation in the Commune, he
has since his return published a volume of political verses entitled
Après le Naufrage, After the Shipwreck, 1880.
Boulainvilliers (Henri de), Comte de St. Saire, French historian and
philosopher, b. 11 Oct. 1658. His principal historical work is an
account of the ancient French Parliaments. He also wrote a defence of
Spinozism under pretence of a refutation of Spinoza, an analysis of
Spinoza's Tractus Theologico-Politicus, printed at the end of Doubts
upon Religion, Londres, 1767. A Life of Muhammad, the first European
work doing justice to Islam, and a History of the Arabs also proceeded
from his pen, and he is one of those to whom is attributed the treatise
with the title of the Three Impostors, 1755. Died 23 Jan. 1722.
Boulanger (Nicolas-Antoine), French Deist, b. 11 Nov. 1722. Died
16 Sept. 1759. He was for some time in the army as engineer, and
afterwards became surveyor of public works. After his death his works
were published by D'Holbach who rewrote them. His principal works
are Antiquity Unveiled and Researches on the Origin of Oriental
Despotism. Christianity Unveiled, attributed to him and said by
Voltaire to have been by Damilavile, was probably written by D'Holbach,
perhaps with some assistance from Naigeon. It was burnt by order of
the French Parliament 18 Aug. 1770. A Critical Examination of the
Life and Works of St. Paul, attributed to Boulanger, was really made
up by d'Holbach from the work of Annet. Boulanger wrote dissertations
on Elisha, Enoch and St. Peter, and some articles for the Encyclopédie.
Bourdet (Dr.) Eugene, French Positivist, b. Paris, 1818. Author of
several works on medicine and Positivist philosophy and education.
Boureau-Deslands (A. F.) See Deslandes.
Bourget (Paul), French littérateur, b. at Amiens in 1852. Has made
himself famous by his novels, essays on contemporary psychology,
studies of M. Rénan, etc. He belongs to the Naturalist School, but
his methods are less crude than those of some of his colleagues. His
insight is most subtle, and his style is exquisite.
Boutteville (Marc Lucien), French writer, professor at the Lycée
Bonaparte; has made translations from Lessing and published an
able work on the Morality of the Church and Natural Morality, 1866,
for which the clergy turned him out of a professorship he held at
Sainte-Barbe.
Bovio (Giovanni), Professor of Political Economy in the University
of Naples and deputy to the Italian parliament; is an ardent
Freethinker. Both in his writings and in parliament Prof. Bovio
opposes the power of the Vatican and the reconciliation between
Church and State. He has constantly advocated liberty of conscience
and has promoted the institution of a Dante chair in the University
of Rome. He has written a work on The History of Law, a copy of which
he presented to the International Congress of Freethinkers, 1887.
Bowring (Sir John, K.B., LL D.), politician, linguist and writer,
b. Exeter, 17 Oct., 1792. In early life a pupil of Dr. Lant
Carpenter and later a disciple of Jeremy Bentham, whose principles
he maintained in the Westminster Review, of which he was editor,
1825. Arrested in France in 1822, after a fortnight's imprisonment
he was released without trial. He published Bentham's Deontology
(1834), and nine years after edited a complete collection of the
works of Bentham. Returned to Parliament in '35, and afterwards was
employed in important government missions. In '55 he visited Siam,
and two years later published an account of The Kingdom and People
of Siam. He translated Goethe, Schiller, Heine, and the poems of
many countries; was an active member of the British Association and
of the Social Science Association, and did much to promote rational
views on the Sunday question. Died 23 Nov. 1872.
Boyle (Humphrey), one of the men who left Leeds for the purpose of
serving in R. Carlile's shop when the right of free publication was
attacked in 1821. Boyle gave no name, and was indicted and tried as
"a man with name unknown" for publishing a blasphemous and seditious
libel. In his defence he ably asserted his right to hold and publish
his opinions. He read portions of the Bible in court to prove he was
justified in calling it obscene. Upon being sentenced, 27 May, 1822,
to eighteen months' imprisonment and to find sureties for five years,
he remarked "I have a mind, my lord, that can bear such a sentence
with fortitude."
Bradlaugh (Charles). Born East London, 26 Sept. 1833. Educated
in Bethnal Green and Hackney. He was turned from his Sunday-school
teachership and from his first situation through the influence of the
Rev. J. G. Packer, and found refuge with the widow of R. Carlile. In
Dec. 1850 he entered the Dragoon Guards and proceeded to Dublin. Here
he met James Thomson, the poet, and contracted a friendship which
lasted for many years. He got his discharge, and in '53 returned to
London and became a solicitor's clerk. He began to write and lecture
under the nom de guerre of "Iconoclast," edited the Investigator, '59;
and had numerous debates with ministers and others. In 1860 he began
editing the National Reformer, which in '68-9 he successfully defended
against a prosecution of the Attorney General, who wished securities
against blasphemy. In '68 he began his efforts to enter Parliament,
and in 1880 was returned for Northampton. After a long struggle
with the House, which would not admit the Atheist, he at length took
his seat in 1885. He was four times re-elected, and the litigation
into which he was plunged will become as historic as that of John
Wilkes. Prosecuted in '76 for publishing The Fruits of Philosophy, he
succeeded in quashing the indictment. Mr. Bradlaugh has had numerous
debates, several of which are published. He has also written many
pamphlets, of which we mention New Lives of Abraham, David, and
other saints, Who was Jesus Christ? What did Jesus Teach? Has Man
a Soul, Is there a God? etc. His Plea for Atheism reached its 20th
thousand in 1880. Mr. Bradlaugh has also published When were our
Gospels Written?, 1867; Heresy, its Utility and Morality, 1870;
The Inspiration of the Bible, 1873; The Freethinker's Text Book,
part i., dealing with natural religion, 1876; The Laws Relating to
Blasphemy and Heresy, 1878; Supernatural and Rational Morality,
1886. In 1857 Mr. Bradlaugh commenced a commentary on the Bible,
entitled The Bible, What is it? In 1865 this appeared in enlarged form,
dealing only with the Pentateuch. In 1882 he published Genesis, Its
Authorship and Authenticity. In Parliament Mr. Bradlaugh has become
a conspicuous figure, and has introduced many important measures. In
1888 he succeeded in passing an Oaths Bill, making affirmations
permissible instead of oaths. His elder daughter, Alice, b. 30
April, 1856, has written on Mind Considered as a Bodily Function,
1884. Died 2 Dec. 1888. His second daughter, Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner,
b. 31 March, 1858, has written "Princess Vera" and other stories,
"Chemistry of Home," etc.
Brækstad (Hans Lien), b. Throndhjem, Norway, 7 Sept. 1845. Has made
English translations from Björnson, Asbjörnsen, Andersen, etc., and
has contributed to Harper's Magazine and other periodical literature.
Brandes (Georg Morris Cohen), Danish writer, by birth a Jew,
b. Copenhagen, 4 Feb. 1842. In 1869 he translated J. S. Mills'
Subjection of Women, and in the following year took a doctor's
degree for a philosophical treatise. His chief work is entitled the
Main Current of Literature in the Nineteenth Century. His brother,
Dr. Edvard Brandes, was elected to the Danish Parliament in 1881,
despite his declaration that he did not believe either in the God of
the Christians or of the Jews.
Bray (Charles), philosophic writer, b. Coventry, 31 Jan. 1811. He was
brought up as an Evangelical, but found his way to Freethought. Early
in life he took an active part in promoting unsectarian education. His
first work (1835) was on The Education of the Body. This was followed
by The Education of the Feelings, of which there were several
editions. In 1836 he married Miss Hennell, sister of C. C. Hennell,
and took the System of Nature and Volney's Ruins of Empires "to
enliven the honeymoon." Among his friends was Mary Ann Evans ("George
Eliot"), who accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Bray to Italy. His works on
The Philosophy of Necessity (1841) and Cerebral Psychology (1875)
give the key to all his thought. He wrote a number of Thomas Scott's
series of tracts: Illusion and Delusion, The Reign of Law in Mind as
in Matter, Toleration with remarks on Professor Tyndall's "Address,"
and a little book, Christianity in the Light of our Present Knowledge
and Moral Sense (1876). He also wrote A Manual of Anthropology and
similar works. In a postscript to his last volume, Phases of Opinion
and Experience During a Long Life, dated 18 Sept. 1884, he stated
that he has no hope or expectation or belief even in the possibility
of continued individuality after death, and that as his opinions have
done to live by "they will do to die by." He died 5 Oct. 1884.
Bresson (Léopold), French Positivist, b. Lamarche, 1817. Educated at
the Polytechnic School, which he left in 1840 and served on public
works. For seventeen years was director of an Austrian Railway
Company. Wrote Idées Modernes, 1880.
Bridges (John Henry), M.D. English Positivist, b. 1833, graduated
B.A. at Oxford 1855, and B.M. 1859; has written on Religion and
Progress, contributed to the Fortnightly Review, and translated Comte's
General View of Positivism (1865) and System of Positive Polity (1873).
Bril (Jakob), Dutch mystical Pantheist, b. Leyden, 21 Jan. 1639. Died
1700. His works were published at Amsterdam, 1705.
Brissot (Jean Pierre) de Warville, active French revolutionist,
b. Chartres, 14 Jan. 1754. He was bred to the law, but took to
literature. He wrote for the Courier de l'Europe, a revolutionary
paper suppressed for its boldness, published a treatise on Truth,
and edited a Philosophical Law Library, 1782-85. He wrote against the
legal authority of Rome, and is credited with Philosophical Letters
upon St. Paul and the Christian Religion, Neufchatel, 1783. In 1784
he was imprisoned in the Bastille for his writings. To avoid a second
imprisonment he went to England and America, returning to France
at the outbreak of the Revolution. He wrote many political works,
became member of the Legislative Assembly, formed the Girondist party,
protested against the execution of Louis XVI., and upon the triumph
of the Mountain was executed with twenty-one of his colleagues,
31 Oct., 1793. Brissot was a voluminous writer, honest, unselfish,
and an earnest lover of freedom in every form.
Bristol (Augusta), née Cooper, American educator, b. Croydon, New
Haven, 17 April, 1835. In 1850 became teacher and gained repute by
her Poems. In Sept. 1880, she represented American Freethinkers at
the International Conference at Brussels. She has written on Science
and its Relations to Human Character and other works.
Broca (Pierre Paul), French anthropologist, b. 28 June, 1824. A
hard-working scientist, he paid special attention to craniology. In
1875 he founded the School of Anthropology and had among his pupils
Gratiolet, Topinard, Hovelacque and Dr. Carter Blake, who translated
his treatise on Hybridity. He established The Review of Anthropology,
published numerous scientific works and was made a member of the
Legion of Honor. In philosophy he inclined to Positivism. Died Paris,
9 July, 1880.
Brooksbank (William), b. Nottingham 6 Dec. 1801. In 1824 he wrote
in Carlile's Lion, and has since contributed to the Reasoner, the
Pathfinder, and the National Reformer. He was an intimate friend
of James Watson. He wrote A Sketch of the Religions of the Earth,
Revelation Tested by Astronomy, Geography, Geology, etc., 1856, and
some other pamphlets. Mr. Brooksbank is still living in honored age
at Nottingham.
Brothier (Léon), author of a Popular History of Philosophy, 1861,
and other works in the Bibliothèque Utile. He contributed to the
Rationalist of Geneva.
Broussais (François Joseph Victor), French physician and philosopher,
b. Saint Malo, 17 Dec. 1772. Educated at Dinan, in 1792 he served
as volunteer in the army of the Republic. He studied medicine at
St. Malo and Brest, and became a naval surgeon. A disciple of Bichat,
he did much to reform medical science by his Examination of Received
Medical Doctrines and to find a basis for mental and moral science in
physiology by his many scientific works. Despite his bold opinions, he
was made Commander of the Legion of Honor. He died poor at St. Malo 17
Nov. 1838, leaving behind a profession of faith, in which he declares
his disbelief in a creator and his being "without hope or fear of
another life."
Brown (George William), Dr., of Rockford, Illinois, b. in Essex Co.,
N.Y., Oct. 1820, of Baptist parents. At 17 years of age he was expelled
the church for repudiating the dogma of an endless hell. Dr. Brown
edited the Herald of Freedom, Kansas. In 1856 his office was destroyed
by a pro-slavery mob, his type thrown into the river, and himself
and others arrested but was released without trial. Dr. Brown has
contributed largely to the Ironclad Age and other American Freethought
papers, and is bringing out a work on the Origin of Christianity.
Brown (Titus L.), Dr., b. 16 Oct. 1823, at Hillside (N.Y.). Studied
at the Medical College of New York and graduated at the Homoeopathic
College, Philadelphia. He settled at Binghamton where he had a large
practice. He contributed to the Boston Investigator and in 1877 was
elected President of the Freethinkers Association. Died 17 Aug. 1887.
Browne (Sir Thomas), physician and writer, b. London, 19 Oct. 1605. He
studied medicine and travelled on the Continent, taking his doctor's
degree at Leyden (1633). He finally settled at Norwich, where he had
a good practice. His treatise Religio Medici, famous for its fine
style and curious mixture of faith and scepticism, was surreptitiously
published in 1642. It ran through several editions and was placed on
the Roman Index. His Pseudodoxia Epidemica; Enquiries into Vulgar
and Common Errors, appeared in 1646. While disputing many popular
superstitions he showed he partook of others. This curious work
was followed by Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial, in which he treats
of cremation among the ancients. To this was added The Garden of
Cyrus. He died 19 Oct. 1682.
Bruno (Giordano), Freethought martyr, b. at Nola, near Naples, about
1548. He was christened Filippo which he changed to Filoteo, taking
the name of Giordano when he entered the Dominican order. Religious
doubts and bold strictures on the monks obliged him to quit Italy,
probably in 1580. He went to Geneva but soon found it no safe abiding
place, and quitted it for Paris, where he taught, but refused to attend
mass. In 1583 he visited England, living with the French ambassador
Castelnau. Having formed a friendship with Sir Philip Sidney, he
dedicated to him his Spaccio della Bestia Triomfante, a satire on all
mythologies. In 1585 he took part in a logical tournament, sustaining
the Copernican theory against the doctors of Oxford. The following year
he returned to Paris, where he again attacked the Aristotelians. He
then travelled to various cities in Germany, everywhere preaching
the broadest heresy. He published several Pantheistic, scientific and
philosophical works. He was however induced to return to Italy, and
arrested as an heresiarch and apostate at Venice, Sept. 1592. After
being confined for seven years by the Inquisitors, he was tried,
and burnt at Rome 17 Feb. 1600. At his last moments a crucifix was
offered him, which he nobly rejected. Bruno was vastly before his age
in his conception of the universe and his rejection of theological
dogmas. A statue of this heroic apostle of liberty and light, executed
by one of the first sculptors of Italy, is to be erected on the spot
where he perished, the Municipal Council of Rome having granted the
site in face of the bitterest opposition of the Catholic party. The
list of subscribers to this memorial comprises the principal advanced
thinkers in Europe and America.
Brzesky (Casimir Liszynsky Podsedek). See Liszinski.
Bucali or Busali (Leonardo), a Calabrian abbot of Spanish descent,
who became a follower of Servetus in the sixteenth century, and had
to seek among the Turks the safety denied him in Christendom. He died
at Damascus.
Buchanan (George), Scotch historian and scholar, b. Killearn,
Feb. 1506. Evincing an early love of study, he was sent to
Paris at the age of fourteen. He returned to Scotland and became
distinguished for his learning. James V. appointed him tutor to his
natural son. He composed his Franciscanus et Fratres, a satire on the
monks, which hastened the Scottish reformation. This exposed him to
the vengeance of the clergy. Not content with calling him Atheist,
Archbishop Beaton had him arrested and confined in St. Andrew's
Castle, from whence he escaped and fled to England. Here he found,
as he said, Henry VIII. burning men of opposite opinions at the same
stake for religion. He returned to Paris, but was again subjected to
the persecution of Beaton, the Scottish Ambassador. On the death of
a patron at Bordeaux, in 1548, he was seized by the Inquisition and
immured for a year and a half in a monastery, where he translated
the Psalms into Latin. He eventually returned to Scotland, where he
espoused the party of Moray. After a most active life, he died 28
Sept. 1582, leaving a History of Scotland, besides numerous poems,
satires, and political writings, the most important of which is a
work of republican tendency, De Jure Regni, the Rights of Kings.
Buchanan (Robert), Socialist, b. Ayr, 1813. He was successively a
schoolmaster, a Socialist missionary and a journalist. He settled in
Manchester, where he published works on the Religion of The Past and
Present, 1839; the Origin and Nature of Ghosts, 1840. An Exposure
of Joseph Barker, and a Concise History of Modern Priestcraft also
bear the latter date. At this time the Socialists were prosecuted for
lecturing on Sunday, and Buchanan was fined for refusing to take the
oath of supremacy, etc. After the decline of Owenism, he wrote for
the Northern Star, and edited the Glasgow Sentinel. He died at the
home of his son, the poet, at Bexhill, Sussex, 4 March, 1866.
Buchanan (Joseph Rhodes), American physician, b. Frankfort, Kentucky,
11 Dec. 1814. He graduated M.D. at Louisville University, 1842, and
has been the teacher of physiology at several colleges. From 1849-56
he published Buchanan's Journal of Man, and has written several works
on Anthropology.
Buchner (Ludwig). See Buechner.
Buckle (Henry Thomas), philosophical historian, b. Lee, Kent, 24
Nov. 1821. In consequence of his delicate health he was educated at
home. His mother was a strict Calvinist, his father a strong Tory,
but a visit to the Continent made him a Freethinker and Radical. He
ever afterwards held travelling to be the best education. It was his
ambition to write a History of Civilisation in England, but so vast was
his design that his three notable volumes with that title form only
part of the introduction. The first appeared in 1858, and created a
great sensation by its boldness. In the following year he championed
the cause of Pooley, who was condemned for blasphemy, and dared the
prosecution of infidels of standing. In 1861 he visited the East,
in the hope of improving his health, but died at Damascus, 29 May,
1862. Much of the material collected for his History has been published
in his Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works, edited by Helen Taylor,
1872. An abridged edition, edited by Grant Allen, appeared in 1886.