Pauw (Cornelius), learned Dutch writer, b. Amsterdam, 1739. He wrote
philosophical researches on the Americans, and also on the Egyptians,
Chinese, and Greeks. Was esteemed by Frederick the Great for his
ingenuity and penetration. Died at Xanten, 7 July, 1799. He was the
uncle of Anacharsis Clootz.
Peacock (John Macleay), Scotch poet, b. 21 March, 1817. He wrote
many poems in the National Reformer, and in '67 published Hours of
Reverie. Died 4 May, 1877.
Peacock or Pecock (Reginald), the father of English rationalism,
b. about 1390, and educated at Oriel College Oxford, of which he
was chosen fellow in 1417. Was successively Bishop of St Asaph,
1444, and Chichester, 1450, by the favor of Humphrey, the good
Duke of Gloster. He declared that Scripture must in all cases be
accommodated to "the doom of reason." He questioned the genuineness
of the Apostles' Creed. In 1457 he was accused of heresy, recanted
from fear of martyrdom, was deprived of his bishopric, and imprisoned
in a monastery at Canterbury, where he used to repeat to those who
visited him,
"Wit hath wonder, that reason cannot skan,
How a Moder is Mayd, and God is Man."
His books were publicly burnt at Oxford. He died in 1460. His influence
doubtless contributed to the Reformation.
Pearson (Karl), author of a volume of essays entitled The Ethic of
Freethought, 1888. Educated at Cambridge; B.A. '79, M.A. '82.
Pechmeja (Jean de), French writer. A friend of Raynal, he wrote a
socialistic romance in 12 books in the style of Telemachus, called
Télèphe, 1784. Died 1785.
Peck (John), American writer in the Truthseeker. Has published Miracles
and Miracle Workers, etc.
Pecqueur (A.), contributor to the Rationaliste of Geneva, 1864.
Pelin (Gabriel), French author of works on Spiritism Explained and
Destroyed, 1864, and God or Science, '67.
Pelletan (Charles Camille), French journalist and deputy, son of
the following; b. Paris, 23 June, 1846. Studied at the Lycée Louis
le Grand. He wrote in La Tribune Française, and Le Rappel, and since
'80 has conducted La Justice with his friend Clémenceau, of whom he
has written a sketch.
Pelletan (Pierre Clement Eugène), French writer,
b. Saint-Palais-sur-Meir, 20 Oct. 1813. As a journalist he wrote in
La Presse, under the name of "Un Inconnu," articles distinguished
by their love of liberty and progress. He also contributed to the
Revue des Deux Mondes. In '52 he published his Profession of Faith
of the Nineteenth Century, and in '57 The Law of Progress and The
Philosophical Kings. From '53-'55 he opposed Napoleon in the Siècle,
and afterwards established La Tribune Française. In '63 he was
elected deputy, but his election being annulled, he was re-elected in
'64. He took distinguished rank among the democratic opposition. After
the battle of Sedan he was made member of the Committee of National
Defence, and in '76 of the Senate, of which he became vice-president
in '79. In '78 he wrote a study on Frederick the Great entitled Un
Roi Philosophe, and in '83 Is God Dead? Died at Paris, 14 Dec. 1884.
Pemberton (Charles Reece). English actor and author, b. Pontypool,
S. Wales, 23 Jan. 1790. He travelled over most of the world and
wrote The Autobiography of Pel Verjuice, which with other remains
was published in 1843. Died 3 March, 1840.
Pennetier (Georges), Dr., b. Rouen, 1836, Director of the Museum of
Natural History at Rouen. Author of a work on the Origin of Life,
'68, in which he contends for spontaneous generation. To this work
F. A. Pouchet contributed a preface.
Perfitt (Philip William), Theist, b. 1820, edited the Pathfinder,
'59-61. Preached at South Place Chapel. Wrote Life and Teachings of
Jesus of Nazareth, '61.
Periers (Bonaventure des). See Desperiers.
Perot (Jean Marie Albert), French banker, author of a work on Man
and God, which has been translated into English, 1881, and Moral and
Philosophical Allegories (Paris, 1883).
Perrier (Edmond), French zoologist, Curator at Museum of Natural
History, Paris, b. Tulle, 1844. Author of numerous works on Natural
History, and one on Transformisme, '88.
Perrin (Raymond S.), American author of a bulky work on The Religion
of Philosophy, or the Unification of Knowledge: a comparison of the
chief philosophical and religious systems of the world, 1885.
Perry (Thomas Ryley), one of Carlile's shopmen, sentenced 1824 to
three years' imprisonment in Newgate for selling Palmer's Principles
of Nature. He became a chemist at Leicester and in 1844 petitioned
Parliament for the prisoners for blasphemy, Paterson and Roalfe,
stating that his own imprisonment had not fulfilled the judge's hope
of his recantation.
Petit (Claude), French poet, burnt on the Place de Grève in 1665 as
the author of some impious pieces.
Petronius, called Arbiter (Titus), Roman Epicurean poet at the Court
of Nero, in order to avoid whose resentment he opened his veins and
bled to death in A.D. 66, conversing meanwhile with his friends on the
gossip of the day. To him we owe the lines on superstition, beginning
"Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor." Petronius is famous for his "pure
Latinity." He is as plain-spoken as Juvenal, and with the same excuse,
his romance being a satire on Nero and his court.
Petruccelli della Gattina (Ferdinando) Italian writer, b. Naples,
1816, has travelled much and written many works. He was deputy to
the Naples Parliament in '48, and exiled after the reaction.
Petrus de Abano. A learned Italian physician, b. Abano 1250. He
studied at Paris and became professor of medicine at Padua. He wrote
many works and had a great reputation. He is said to have denied the
existence of spirits, and to have ascribed all miracles to natural
causes. Cited before the Inquisition in 1306 as a heretic, a magician
and an Atheist, he ably defended himself and was acquitted. He was
accused a second time but dying (1320) while the trial was preparing,
he was condemned after death, his body disinterred and burnt, and he
was also burnt in effigy in the public square of Padua.
Peypers (H. F. A.), Dutch writer, b. De Rijp, 2 Jan. 1856, studied
medicine, and is now M.D. at Amsterdam. He is a man of erudition and
good natured though satirical turn of mind. He has contributed much
to De Dageraad, and is at present one of the five editors of that
Freethought monthly.
Peyrard (François), French mathematician, b. Vial (Haute Loire)
1760. A warm partisan of the revolution, he was one of those who (7
Nov. 1793) incited Bishop Gobel to abjure his religion. An intimate
friend of Sylvian Maréchal, Peyrard furnished him with notes for
his Dictionnaire des Athées. He wrote a work on Nature and its Laws,
1793-4, and proposed the piercing of the Isthmus of Suez. He translated
the works of Euclid and Archimedes. Died at Paris 3 Oct. 1822.
Peyrat (Alphonse), French writer, b. Toulouse, 21 June, 1812. He
wrote in the National and la Presse, and combated against the Second
Empire. In '65 he founded l'Avenir National, which was several
times condemned. In Feb. '71, he was elected deputy of the Seine,
and proposed the proclamation of the Republic. In '76 he was chosen
senator. He wrote a History of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception,
'55; History and Religion, '58; Historical and Religious Studies, '58;
and an able and scholarly Elementary and Critical History of Jesus,
'64.
Peyrere (Isaac de la), French writer, b. Bordeaux, 1594, and brought up
as a Protestant. He entered into the service of the house of Condé, and
became intimate with La Mothe de Vayer and Gassendi. His work entitled
Præadamitæ, 1653, in which he maintained that men lived before Adam,
made a great sensation, and was burnt by the hangman at Paris. The
bishop of Namur censured it, and la Peyrère was arrested at Brussels,
1656, by order of the Archbishop of Malines, but escaped by favor of
the Prince of Condé on condition of retracting his book at Rome. The
following epitaph was nevertheless made on him:
La Peyrere ici gît, ce bon Israelite,
Hugenot, Catholique, enfin Pre-adamite:
Quatre religions lui plurent à la fois:
Et son indifférence était si peu commune
Qu'après 80 ans qu'il eut à faire un choix
Le bon homme partit, et n'en choisit pas une.
Died near Paris, 30 Jan. 1676.
Pfeiff (Johan Gustaf Viktor), Swedish baron, b. Upland, 1829. Editor
of the free religious periodical, The Truthseeker, since 1882. He has
also translated into Swedish some of the writings of Herbert Spencer.
Pharmacopulo (A.P.) Greek translator of Büchner's Force and Matter, and
corresponding member of the International Federation of Freethinkers.
Phillips (Sir Richard), industrious English writer, b. London, 1767. He
was hosier, bookseller, printer, publisher, republican, Sheriff of
London (1807-8), and Knight. He compiled many schoolbooks, chiefly
under pseudonyms, of which the most popular were the Rev. J. Goldsmith
and Rev. D. Blair. His own opinions are seen most in his Million of
Facts. Died at Brighton 2 April, 1840.
Phillippo (William Skinner), farmer, of Wood Norton, near Thetford,
Norfolk. A deist who wrote an Essay on Political and Religious
Meditations, 1868.
Pi-y Margall (Francisco), Spanish philosopher and Republican statesman,
b. Barcelona, 1820. The first book he learnt to read was the Ruins
of Volney. Studied law and became an advocate. He has written many
political works, and translated Proudhon, for whom he has much
admiration, into Spanish. He has also introduced the writings and
philosophy of Comte into his own country. He was associated with
Castelar and Figueras in the attempt to establish a Spanish Republic,
being Minister of the Interior, and afterwards President in 1873.
Pichard (Prosper). French Positivist, author of Doctrine of Reality,
"a catechism for the use of people who do not pay themselves with
words," to which Littré wrote a preface, 1873.
Pierson (Allard). Dutch rationalist critic, b. Amsterdam 8 April,
1831. Educated in theology, he was minister to the Evangelical
congregation at Leuven, afterwards at Rotterdam and finally professor
at Heidelberg. He resigned his connection with the Church in '64. He
has written many works of theological and literary value of which we
mention his Poems '82, New Studies on Calvin, '83, and Verisimilia,
written in conjunction with S. A. Naber, '86.
Pigault-Lebrun (Guillaume Charles Antoine), witty French author,
b. Calais, 8 April, 1753. He studied under the Oratorians of
Boulogne. He wrote numerous comedies and romances, and Le Citateur,
1803, a collection of objections to Christianity, borrowed in part
from Voltaire, whose spirit he largely shared. In 1811 Napoleon
threatened the priests he would issue this work wholesale. It
was suppressed under the Restoration, but has been frequently
reprinted. Pigault-Lebrun became secretary to King Jerome Napoleon,
and died at La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 24 July, 1835.
Pike (J. W.) American lecturer, b. Concord (Ohio), 27 June, 1826,
wrote My Religious Experience and What I found in the Bible, 1867.
Pillsbury (Parker), American reformer, b. Hamilton, Mass., 22
Sep. 1809. Was employed in farm work till '35, when he entered
Gilmerton theological seminary. He graduated in '38, studied a year
at Andover, was congregational minister for one year, and then,
perceiving the churches were the bulwark of slavery, abandoned the
ministry. He became an abolitionist lecturer, edited the Herald
of Freedom, National Anti-Slavery Standard, and the Revolution. He
also preached for free religious societies, wrote Pious Frauds, and
contributed to the Boston Investigator and Freethinkers' Magazine. His
principal work is Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles, 1883.
Piron (Alexis), French comic poet, b. Dijon, 9 July, 1689. His
pieces were full of wit and gaiety, and many anecdotes are told of
his profanity. Among his sallies was his reply to a reproof for being
drunk on Good Friday, that failing must be excused on a day when even
deity succumbed. Being blind in his old age he affected piety. Worried
by his confessor about a Bible in the margin of which he had written
parodies and epigrams as the best commentary, he threw the whole book
in the fire. Asked on his death-bed if he believed in God he answered
"Parbleu, I believe even in the Virgin." Died at Paris, 21 Jan. 1773.
Pisarev (Dmitri Ivanovich) Russian critic, journalist, and materialist,
b. 1840. He first became known by his criticism on the Scholastics of
the nineteenth century. Died Baden, near Riga, July 1868. His works
are published in ten vols. Petersburg, 1870.
Pitt (William). Earl of Chatham, an illustrious English statesman
and orator, b. Boconnoc, Cornwall, 15 Nov. 1708. The services to his
country of "the Great Commoner," as he was called, are well known,
but it is not so generally recognised that his Letter on Superstition,
first printed in the London Journal in 1733, entitles him to be ranked
with the Deists. He says that "the more superstitious people are,
always the more vicious; and the more they believe, the less they
practice." Atheism furnishes no man with arguments to be vicious;
but superstition, or what the world made by religion, is the greatest
possible encouragement to vice, by setting up something as religion,
which shall atone and commute for the want of virtue. This remarkable
letter ends with the words "Remember that the only true divinity
is humanity."
Place (Francis), English Radical reformer and tailor; b. 1779 at
Charing Cross. He early became a member of the London, Corresponding
Society. He wrote to Carlile's Republican and Lion. A friend of
T. Hardy, H. Tooke, James Mill, Bentham, Roebuck, Hetherington, and
Hibbert (who puts him in his list of English Freethinkers). He was
connected with all the advanced movements of his time and has left
many manuscripts illustrating the politics of that period, which are
now in the British Museum. He always professed to be an Atheist--see
Reasoner, 26 March, '54. Died at Kensington, 1 Jan. 1854.
Platt (James), F.S.S., a woolen merchant and Deistic author of
popular works on Business, '75; Morality, '78; Progress, '80; Life,
'81; God and Mammon, etc.
Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus), the elder, Roman naturalist, b. Verona,
A.D. 22. He distinguished himself in the army, was admitted into the
college of Augurs, appointed procurator in Spain, and honored with
the esteem of Vespasian and Titus. He wrote the history of his own
time in 31 books, now lost, and a Natural History in 37 books, one
of the most precious monuments of antiquity, in which his Epicurean
Atheism appears. Being with the fleet at Misenum, 24 Aug. A.D. 79,
he observed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and landing to assist
the inhabitants was himself suffocated by the noxious vapors.
Plumacher (Olga), German pessimist, follower of Hartmann, and authoress
of a work on Pessimism in the Past and Future, Heidelberg, 1884. She
has also defended her views in Mind.
Plumer (William) American senator, b. Newburyport, Mass. 25 June,
1759. In 1780 he became a Baptist preacher, but resigned on account
of scepticism. He remained a deist. He served in the Legislature
eight terms, during two of which he was Speaker. He was governor
of New Hampshire, 1812-18, wrote to the press over the signature
"Cincinnatus," and published an Address to the Clergy, '14. He lived
till 22 June, 1850.
Plutarch. Greek philosopher and historian, b. Cheronæa in Boetia, about
A.D. 50. He visited Delphi and Rome, where he lived in the reign of
Trajan. His Parallel Lives of forty-six Greeks and Romans have made
him immortal. He wrote numerous other anecdotal and ethical works,
including a treatise on Superstition. He condemned the vulgar notions
of Deity, and remarked, in connection with the deeds popularly ascribed
to the gods, that he would rather men said there was no Plutarch than
traduce his character. In other words, superstition is more impious
than Atheism. Died about A.D. 120.
Poe (Edgar Allan), American poet, grandson of General Poe, who figured
in the war of independence, b. Boston, 19 Jan. 1809. His mother was
an actress. Early left an orphan. After publishing Tamerlane and other
Poems, '27, he enlisted in the United States Army, but was cashiered in
'31. He then took to literary employment in Baltimore and wrote many
stories, collected as the Tales of Mystery, Imagination, and Humor. In
'45 appeared The Raven and other Poems, which proved him the most
musical and dextrous of American poets. In '48 he published Eureka,
a Prose Poem, which, though comparatively little known, he esteemed
his greatest work. It indicates pantheistic views of the universe. His
personal appearance was striking and one of his portraits is not
unlike that of James Thomson. Died in Baltimore, 7 Oct. 1849.
Poey (Andrés), Cuban meteorologist and Positivist of French and Spanish
descent, b. Havana, 1826. Wrote in the Modern Thinker, and is author
of many scientific memoirs and a popular exposition of Positivism
(Paris, 1876), in which he has a chapter on Darwinism and Comtism.
Pompery (Edouard), French publicist, b. Courcelles, 1812. A follower
of Fourier, he has written on Blanquism and opportunism, '79, and a
Life of Voltaire, '80.
Pomponazzi (Pietro) [Lat. Pomponatius], Italian philosopher,
b. Mantua, of noble family, 16 Sept. 1462. He studied at Padua,
where he graduated 1487 as laureate of medicine. Next year he was
appointed professor of philosophy at Padua, teaching in concurrence
with Achillini. He afterwards taught the doctrines of Aristotle at
Ferrara and Bologna. His treatise De Immortalitate Animæ, 1516, gave
great offence by denying the philosophical foundation of the doctrine
of the immortality of the soul. The work was burnt by the hangman at
Venice, and it is said Cardinal Bembo's intercession with Pope Leo
X. only saved Pomponazzi from ecclesiastical procedure. Among his works
is a treatise on Fate, Free Will, etc. Pomponazzi was a diminutive
man, and was nicknamed "Peretto." He held that doubt was necessary
for the development of knowledge, and left an unsullied reputation
for upright conduct and sweet temper. Died at Bologna, 18 May, 1525,
and was buried at Mantua, where a monument was erected to his memory.
Ponnat (de), Baron, French writer, b. about 1810. Educated by
Jesuits, he became a thorough Freethinker and democrat and a friend
of A. S. Morin, with whom he collaborated on the Rationaliste of
Geneva. He wrote many notable articles in La Libre Pensée, Le Critique,
and Le Candide, for writing in which last he was sentenced to one
year's imprisonment. He published, under the anagram of De Pontan,
The Cross or Death, a discourse to the bishops who assisted at the
Ecumenical Council at Rome (Brussels, '62). His principal work is
a history of the variations and contradictions of the Roman Church
(Paris, '82). Died in 1884.
Porphyry, Greek philosoper of the New Platonic school, b. Sinia,
233 A.D. His original name was Malchus or Melech--a "King." He was
a pupil of Longinus and perhaps of Origen. Some have supposed that
he was of Jewish faith, and first embraced and then afterwards
rejected Christianity. It is certain he was a man of learning and
intelligence; the friend as well as the disciple of Plotinus. He wrote
(in Greek) a famous work in fifteen books against the Christians, some
fragments of which alone remain in the writings of his opponents. It
is certain he showed acquaintance with the Jewish and Christian
writings, exposed their contradictions, pointed out the dispute between
Peter and Paul, and referred Daniel to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.
He wrote many other works, among which are lives of Plotinus and
Pythagorus. Died at Rome about 305.
Porzio (Simone), a disciple of Pomponazzi, to whom, when lecturing
at Pisa, the students cried "What of the soul?" He frankly professed
his belief that the human soul differed in no essential point from
the soul of a lion or plant, and that those who thought otherwise
were prompted by pity for our mean estate. These assertions are in
his treatise De Mente Humanâ.
"Posos (Juan de)," an undiscovered author using this pen-name,
expressed atheistic opinions in a book of imaginary travels, published
in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1708, and translated into German at Leipsic,
1721.
Post (Amy), American reformer, b. 1803. From '28 she was a leading
advocate of slavery abolition, temperance, woman's suffrage and
religious reform. Died Rochester, New York, 29 Jan. 1889.