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:

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 Bœtia, 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 (Πορφύριος), 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.

Potter (Agathon Louis de). See De Potter (A. L.)

Potter (Louis Antoine Joseph de). See De Potter (L. A. J.)

Potvin (Charles), Belgian writer b. Mons. 2 Dec. 1818, is member of the Royal Academy of Letters, and professor of the history of literature at Brussels. He wrote anonymously Poesie et Amour ’58, and Rome and the Family. Under the name of “Dom Jacobus” he has written an able work in two volumes on The Church and Morality, and also Tablets of a Freethinker. He was president of “La Libre Pensée” of Brussels from ’78 to ’83, is director of the Revue de Belgique and has collaborated on the National and other papers.

Pouchet (Felix Archimède), French naturalist, b. Rouen 26 Aug. 1800. Studied medicine under Dr. Flaubert, father of the author of Mme. Bovary, and became doctor in ’27. He was made professor of natural history at the Museum of Rouen, and by his experiments enriched science with many discoveries. He defended spontaneous generation and wrote many monographs and books of which the principal is entitled The Universe, ’65. Died at Rouen, 6 Dec. 1872.

Pouchet (Henri Charles George), French naturalist, son of the proceeding, b. Rouen, 1833, made M.D. in ’64, and in ’79 professor of comparative anatomy in the museum of Natural History at Paris. In ’80 he was decorated with the Legion of Honor. He has written on The Plurality of the Human Race, ’58, and collaborated on the Siècle, and the Revue des Deux Mondes and to la Philosophie Positive.

Pouchkine (A.), see Pushkin.

Pougens (Marie Charles Joseph de), French author, a natural son of the Prince de Conti, b. Paris, 15 Aug. 1755. About the age of 24 he was blinded by small pox. He became an intimate friend of the philosophers, and, sharing their views, embraced the revolution with ardor, though it ruined his fortunes. He wrote Philosophical Researches, 1786, edited the posthumous works of D’Alembert, 1799, and worked at a dictionary of the French language. His Jocko, a tale of a monkey, exhibits his keen sympathy with animal intelligence, and in his Philosophical Letters, 1826, he gives anecdotes of Voltaire, Rousseau, D’Alembert, Pechmeja, Franklin, etc. Died at Vauxbuin, near Soissons, 19 Dec. 1833.

Poulin (Paul), Belgian follower of Baron Colins and author of What is God? What is Man? a scientific solution of the religious problem (Brussels, 1865), and re-issued as God According to Science, ’75, in which he maintains that man and God exclude each other, and that the only divinity is moral harmony.

Poultier D’Elmolte (François Martin), b. Montreuil-sur-Mer, 31 Oct. 1753. Became a Benedictine monk, but cast aside his frock at the Revolution, married, and became chief of a battalion of volunteers. Elected to the Convention he voted for the death of the King. He conducted the journal, L’Ami des lois, and became one of the Council of Ancients. Exiled in 1816, he died at Tournay in Belgium, 16 Feb. 1827. He wrote Morceaux Philosophiques in the Journal Encyclopédique; Victoire, or the Confessions of a Benedictine; Discours Décadaires, for the use of Theophilantropists, and Conjectures on the Nature and Origin of Things, Tournay, 1821.

Powell (B. F.), compiler of the Bible of Reason, or Scriptures of Ancient Moralists; published by Hetherington in 1837.

Prades (Jean Martin de), French theologian b. Castel-Sarrasin, about 1720. Brought up for the church, he nevertheless became intimate with Diderot and contributed the article Certitude to the Encyclopédie. On the 18th Nov. 1751 he presented to the Sorbonne a thesis for the doctorate, remarkable as the first open attack on Christianity by a French theologian. He maintained many propositions on the soul, the origin of society, the laws of Moses, miracles, etc., contrary to the dogmas of the Church, and compared the cures recorded in the Gospels to those attributed to Esculapius. The thesis made a great scandal. His opinions were condemned by Pope Benedict XIV., and he fled to Holland for safety. Recommended to Frederick the Great by d’Alembert he was received with favor at Berlin, and became reader to that monarch, who wrote a very anti-Christian preface to de Prades’ work on ecclesiastical history, published as Abrége de l’Histoire ecclesiastique de Fleury, Berne (Berlin) 1766. He retired to a benefice at Glogau (Silesia), given him by Frederick, and died there in 1782.

Prater (Horatio), a gentleman of some fortune who devoted himself to the propagation of Freethought ideas. Born early in the century, he wrote on the Physiology of the Blood, 1832. He published Letters to the American People, and Literary Essays, ’56. Died 20 July, 1885. He left the bulk of his money to benevolent objects, and ordered a deep wound to be made in his arm to insure that he was dead.

Preda (Pietro), Italian writer of Milan, author of a work on Revelation and Reason, published at Geneva, 1865, under the pseudonym of “Padre Pietro.”

Premontval (Andre Pierre Le Guay de), French writer, b. Charenton, 16 Feb. 1716. At nineteen years of age, while in the college of Plessis Sorbonne, he composed a work against the dogma of the Eucharist. He studied mathematics and became member of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. He wrote Le Diogene de D’Alembert, or Freethoughts on Man, 1754, Panangiana Panurgica, or the false Evangelist, and Vues Philosophiques, Amst., 2 vols., 1757. He also wrote De la Théologie de L’Etre, in which he denies many of the ordinary proofs of the existence of a God. Died Berlin, 1767.

Priestley (Joseph), LL.D., English philosopher, b. Fieldhead, near Leeds, 18 March, 1733. Brought up as a Calvinist, he found his way to broad Unitarianism. Famous as a pneumatic chemist, he defended the doctrine of philosophical necessity, and in a dissertation annexed to his edition of Hartley expressed doubts of the immateriality of the sentient principal in man. This doctrine he forcibly supported in his Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit, 1777. Through the obloquy these works produced, he lost his position as librarian to Lord Shelburne. He then removed to Birmingham, and became minister of an independent Unitarian congregation, and occupied himself on his History of the Corruptions of Christianity and History of the Early Opinions Concerning Jesus Christ, which involved him in controversy with Bishop Horsley and others. In consequence of his sympathy with the French Revolution, his house was burnt and sacked in a riot, 14 July, 1791. After this he removed to Hackney, and was finally goaded to seek an asylum in the United States, which he reached in 1794. Even in America he endured some uneasiness on account of his opinions until Jefferson became president. Died 6 Feb. 1804.

Pringle (Allen), Canadian Freethinker, author of Ingersoll in Canada, 1880.

Proctor (Richard Anthony), English astronomer, b. Chelsea, 23 March, 1837. Educated at King’s College, London, and at St. John’s, Cambridge, where he became B.A. in ’60. In ’66 he became Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, of which he afterwards became hon. sec. He maintained in ’69 the since-established theory of the solar corona. He wrote, lectured, and edited, far and wide, and left nearly fifty volumes, chiefly popularising science. Attracted by Newman, he was for a while a Catholic, but thought out the question of Catholicism and science, and in a letter to the New York Tribune, Nov. ’75, formally renounced that religion as irreconcilable with scientific facts. His remarks on the so-called Star of Bethlehem in The Universe of Suns, and other Science Gleanings, and his Sunday lectures, indicated his heresy. In ’81 he started Knowledge, in which appeared many valuable papers, notably one (Jan. ’87), “The Beginning of Christianity.” He entirely rejected the miraculous elements of the gospels, which he considered largely a rechauffé of solar myths. In other articles in the Freethinkers’ Magazine and the Open Court he pointed out the coincidence between the Christian stories and solar myths, and also with stories found in Josephus. The very last article he published before his untimely death was a vindication of Colonel Ingersoll in his controversy with Gladstone in the North American Review. In ’84 he settled at St. Josephs, Mobille, where he contracted yellow fever and died at New York, 12 Sep. 1888.

Proudhon (Pierre Joseph), French anarchist and political thinker, b. Besançon, 15 Jan. 1809. Self-educated he became a printer, and won a prize of 1,500 francs for the person “best fitted for a literary or scientific career.” In ’40 appears his memoir, What is Property? in which he made the celebrated answer “C’est le vol.” In ’43 the Creation of Order in Humanity appeared, treating of religion, philosophy and logic. In ’46 he published his System of Economical Contradictions, in which appeared his famous aphorism, “Dieu, c’est le mal.” In ’48 he introduced his scheme of the organisation of credit in a Bank of the People, which failed, though Proudhon saw that no one lost anything. He attacked Louis Bonaparte when President, and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 francs. On 2 Jan. ’50 he married by private contract while in prison. For his work on Justice in the Revolution and in the Church he was condemned to three years’ imprisonment and 4,000 francs fine in ’58. He took refuge in Belgium and returned in ’63. Died at Passy, 19 Jan. 1865. Among his posthumous works was The Gospels Annotated, ’66. Proudhon was a bold and profound thinker of noble aspirations, but he lacked the sense of art and practicability. His complete works have been published in 26 vols.

Protagoras, Greek philosopher, b. Abdera, about 480 B.C. Is said to have been a disciple of Democritus, and to have been a porter before he studied philosophy. He was the first to call himself a sophist. He wrote in a book on the gods, “Respecting the gods, I am unable to know whether they exist or do not exist.” For this he was impeached and banished, and his book burnt. He went to Epirus and the Greek Islands, and died about 411. He believed all things were in flux, and summed up his conclusions in the proposition that “man is the measure of all things, both of that which exists and that which does not exist.” Grote, who defends the Sophists, says his philosophy “had the merit of bringing into forcible relief the essentially relative nature of cognition.”

Prudhomme (Sully). See Sully Prudhomme.

Pückler Muskau (Hermann Ludwig Heinrich), Prince, a German writer, b. Muskau, 30 Oct. 1785. He travelled widely and wrote his observations in a work entitled Letters of a Defunct, 1830; this was followed by Tutti Frutti, ’32; Semilasso in Africa, ’36, and other works. Died 4 Feb. 1871.

Pushkin (Aleksandr Sergyeevich), eminent Russian poet, often called the Russian Byron, b. Pskow, 26 May, 1799. From youth he was remarkable for his turbulent spirit, and his first work, which circulated only in manuscript, was founded on Parny’s Guerre des Dieux, and entitled the Gabrielade, the archangel being the hero. He was exiled by the Emperor, but, inspired largely by reading Voltaire and Byron, put forward numerous poems and romances, of which the most popular is Eugene Onéguine, an imitation of Don Juan. He also wrote some histories and founded the Sovremennik (Contemporary), 1836. In Jan. 1837 he was mortally wounded in a duel.

Putnam (Samuel P.), American writer and lecturer, brought up as a minister. He left that profession for Freethought, and became secretary to the American Secular Union, of which he was elected president in Oct. 1887. In ’88 he started Freethought at San Francisco in company with G. Macdonald. Has written poems, Prometheus, Ingersoll and Jesus, Adami and Heva; romances entitled Golden Throne, Waifs and Wanderings, and Gottlieb, and pamphlets on the Problem of the Universe, The New God, and The Glory of Infidelity.

Putsage (Jules), Belgian follower of Baron Colins, founder of the Colins Philosophical Society at Mons; has written on Determinism and Rational Science, Brussels 1885, besides many essays in La Philosophie de L’Avenir of Paris and La Societe Nouvelle of Brussels.

Pyat (Felix) French socialist, writer and orator, b. Vierzon, 4 Oct. 1810. His father was religious and sent him to a Jesuit college at Bourges, but he here secretly read the writings of Beranger and Courier. He studied law, but abandoned it for literature, writing in many papers. He also wrote popular dramas, as The Rag-picker of Paris, ’47. After ’52 he lived in England, where he wrote an apology for the attempt of Orsini, published by Truelove, ’58. In ’71 he founded the journal le Combat. Elected to the National Assembly he protested against the treaty of peace, was named member of the Commune and condemned to death in ’73. He returned to France after the armistice, and has sat as deputy for Marseilles. Died, Saint Gerainte near Nice, 3 Aug. 1889.

Pyrrho (Πύρρων). Greek philosopher, a native of Elis, in Peloponesus, founder of a sceptical school about the time of Epicurus; is said to have been attracted to philosophy by the books of Democritus. He attached himself to Anaxarchus, and joined her in the expedition of Alexander the Great, and became acquainted with the philosophy of the Magi and the Indian Gymnosophists. He taught the wisdom of doubt, the uncertainty of all things, and the rejection of speculation. His disciples extolled his equanimity and independence of externals. It is related that he kept house with his sister, and shared with her in all domestic duties. He reached the age of ninety years, and after his death the Athenians honored him with a statue. He left no writings, but the tenets of his school, which were much misrepresented, may be gathered from Sextus and Empiricus.

Quental. See Anthero de Quental.

“Quepat (Nérée.”) See Paquet (René).

Quesnay (François), French economist, b. Mérey, 4 June 1694. Self educated he became a physician, but is chiefly noted for his Tableau Economique, 1708, and his doctrine of Laissez Faire. He derived moral and social rules from physical laws. Died Versailles, 16 Dec. 1774.

Quinet (Edgar), French writer, b. Bourgen Bresse, 17 Feb. 1803. He attracted the notice of Cousin by a translation of Herder’s The Philosophy of History. With his friend Michelet he made many attacks on Catholicism, the Jesuits being their joint work. He fought in the Revolution of ’48, and opposed the Second Empire. His work on The Genius of Religion, ’42, is profound, though mystical, and his historical work on The Revolution, ’65 is a masterpiece. Died at Versailles, 27 March, 1875.

Quintin (Jean), Heretic of Picardy, and alleged founder of the Libertines. He is said to have preached in Holland and Brabant in 1525, that religion was a human invention. Quintin was arrested and burnt at Tournay in 1530.

Quris (Charles), French advocate of Angers, who has published some works on law and La Défense Catholique et la Critique, Paris, 1864.

Rabelais (François), famous and witty French satirist and philosopher, b. Chinon, Touraine, 7 Jan. 1495. At an early age he joined the order of Franciscans, but finding monastic life incompatible with his genial temper, quitted the convent without the leave of his superior. He studied medicine at Montpelier about 1530, after which he practised at Lyons. His great humorous work, published anonymously in 1535, was denounced as heretical by the clergy for its satires, not only on their order but their creed. The author was protected by Francis I. and was appointed curé of Meudon. Died at Paris, 9 April, 1553. His writings show surprising fertility of mind, and Coleridge says, “Beyond a doubt he was among the deepest as well as boldest thinkers of his age.”

Radenhausen (Christian), German philosopher, b. Friedrichstadt, 3 Dec. 1813. At first a merchant and then a lithographer, he resided at Hamburg, where he published Isis, Mankind and the World (4 vols.), ’70–72; Osiris, ’74; The New Faith, ’77; Christianity is Heathenism, ’81; The True Bible and the False, ’87; Esther, ’87.

Radicati (Alberto di), Count. See Passerano.

Ragon (Jean Marie de), French Freemason, b. Bray-sur-Seine, 1781. By profession a civil engineer at Nancy, afterwards Chief of Bureau to the Minister of the Interior. Author of many works on Freemasonry, and The Mass and its Mysteries Compared with the Ancient Mysteries, 1844. Died at Paris, 1862.

Ram (Joachim Gerhard), Holstein philosopher of the seventeenth century, who was accused of Atheism.

Ramaer (Anton Gerard Willem), Dutch writer b. Jever, East Friesland, 2 Aug. 1812. From ’29 he served as officer in the Dutch army. He afterwards became a tax collector, and in ’60 was pensioned. He wrote on Schopenhauer and other able works, and also contributed largely to De Dageraad, often under the pseudonym of “Laçhmé.” He had a noble mind and sacrificed much for his friends and the good cause. Died 16 Feb. 1867.

Ramee (Louise de la), English novelist, b., of French extraction, Bury St. Edmunds, 1840. Under the name of “Ouida,” a little sister’s mispronunciation of Louisa, she has published many popular novels, exhibiting her free and pessimistic opinions. We mention Tricotin, Folle Farine, Signa, Moths and A Village Commune. She has lived much in Italy, where the scenes of several novels are placed.

Ramee (Pierre de la) called Ramus, French humanist, b. Cuth (Vermandois) 1515. He attacked the doctrines of Aristotle, was accused of impiety, and his work suppressed 1543. He lost his life in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 26 Aug. 1572.

Ramsey (William James), b. London, 8 June, 1844. Becoming a Freethinker early in life, he for some time sold literature at the Hall of Science and became manager of the Freethought Publishing Co. Starting in business for himself he published the Freethinker, for which in ’82 he was prosecuted with Mr. Foote and Mr. Kemp. Tried in March ’83, after a good defence, he was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, and on Mr. Foote’s release acted as printer of the paper.

Ranc (Arthur), French writer and deputy, b. Poitiers, 10 Dec. 1831, and was brought up a Freethinker and Republican by his parents. He took the prize for philosophy at the College of Poitiers, and studied law at Paris. He conspired with C. Delescluze against the Second Empire and was imprisoned, but escaped to Geneva. He collaborated on La Marseillaise, was elected on the Municipal Council of Paris in ’71, and Deputy, ’73. Has written Under the Empire and many other political works.

Randello (Cosimo), Italian author of The Simple Story of a Great Fraud, being a criticism of the origin of Christianity, directed against Pauline theology, published at Milan, 1882.

Rapisardi (Mario), Italian poet, b. Catania, Sicily, 1843. Has translated Lucretius, ’80, and published poems on Lucifer, and The Last Prayer of Pius IX., ’71, etc.

Raspail (François Vincent), French chemist and politician b. Carpentras 24 Jan. 1794, was brought up by ecclesiastics and intended for the Church. He became, while quite young, professor of philosophy at the theological seminary of Avignon but an examination of theological dogmas led to their rejection. He went to Paris, and from 1815–24 gave lessons, and afterwards became a scientific lecturer. He took part in the Revolution of ’30. Louis Philippe offered him the Legion of Honor but he refused. Taking part in all the revolutionary outbreaks he was frequently imprisoned. Elected to the chamber in ’69 and sat on the extreme left. Died at Arcueil 6 Jan. 1878.

Rau (Herbert), German rationalist b. Frankfort 11 Feb. 1813. He studied theology and became preacher to free congregations in Stuttgart and Mannheim. He wrote Gospel of Nature, A Catechism of the Religion of the Future, and other works. Died Frankfort 26 Sept. 1876.

Rawson (Albert Leighton) LL.D. American traveller and author, b. Chester, Vermont 15 Oct. 1829. After studying law, theology, and art, he made four visits to the East, and made in ’51–2 a pilgrimage from Cairo to Mecca, disguised as a Mohammedan student of medicine. He has published many maps and typographical and philological works, and illustrated Beecher’s Life of Jesus. Has also written on the Antiquities of the Orient, New York, ’70, and Chorography of Palestine, London, ’80. Has written in the Freethinkers’ Magazine, maintaining that the Bible account of the twelve tribes of Israel is non-historical.

Raynal (Guillaume Thomas François) l’abbé, French historian and philosopher, b. Saint Geniez, 12 April, 1713. He was brought up as a priest but renounced that profession soon after his removal to Paris, 1747, where he became intimate with Helvetius, Holbach, etc. With the assistance of these, and Diderot, Pechmeja, etc., he compiled a philosophical History of European establishments in the two Indies (4 vols. 1770 and 1780), a work full of reflections on the religious and political institutions of France. It made a great outcry, was censured by the Sorbonne, and was burnt by order of Parliament 29 May, 1781. Raynal escaped and passed about six years in exile. Died near Paris, 6 March, 1796.

Reade (William Winwood), English traveller and writer, nephew of Charles Reade the novelist, b. Murrayfield, near Crieff, Scotland, 26 Dec. 1824. He studied at Oxford, then travelled much in the heart of Africa, and wrote Savage Africa, ’63, The African Sketch Book, and in ’73, The Story of the Ashantee Campaign; which he accompanied as Times correspondent. In the Martyrdom of Man (’72), he rejects the doctrine of a personal creator. It went through several editions and is still worth reading. He also wrote Liberty Hall, a novel, ’60; The Veil of Isis, ’61, and See Saw, a novel, ’65. He wrote his last work The Outcast, a Freethought novel, with the hand of death upon him. Died 24 April, 1875.

Reber (George), American author of The Christ of Paul, or the Enigmas of Christianity (New York, 1876), a work in which he exposes the frauds and follies of the early fathers.

Reclus (Jean Jacques Elisée), French geographer and socialist, the son of a Protestant minister, b. Sainte-Foy-la-Grande (Gironde), 15 March, 1830, and educated by the Moravian brethren, and afterwards at Berlin. He early distinguished himself by his love for liberty, and left France after the coup d’état of 2 Dec. ’51, and travelled till ’57 in England, Ireland, and the North and South America, devoting himself to studying the social and political as well as physical condition of the countries he visited, the results being published in the Tour du monde, and Revue des Deux Mondes, in which he upheld the cause of the North during the American war. In ’71 he supported the Commune and was taken prisoner and sentenced to transportation for life. Many eminent men in England and America interceded and his sentence was commuted to banishment. At the amnesty of March ’79, he returned to Paris, and has devoted himself to the publication of a standard Universal Geography in 13 vols. In ’82 he gave two of his daughters in marriage without either religious or civil ceremony. He has written a preface to Bakounin’s God and the State, and many other works.

Reddalls (George Holland), English Secularist, b. Birmingham, Nov. 1846. He became a compositor on the Birmingham Daily Post, but wishing to conduct a Freethought paper started in business for himself, and issued the Secular Chronicle, ’73, which was contributed to by Francis Neale, H. V. Mayer, G. Standring, etc. He died 13 Oct. 1875.

Reghillini de Schio (M.), Professor of Chemistry and Mathematics, b. of Venetian parents at Schio in 1760. He wrote in French an able exposition of Masonry, 1833, which he traced to Egypt; and an Examination of Mosaism and Christianity, ’34. He was mixed in the troubles of Venice in ’48, and fled to Belgium, dying in poverty at Brussels Aug. 1853.

Regnard (Albert Adrien), French doctor and publicist, b. Lachante (Nièvre), 20 March, 1836, author of Essais d’Histoire et de Critique Scientifique (Paris, ’65)—a work for which he could find no publisher, and had to issue himself—in which he proclaimed scientific materialism. Losing his situation, he started, with Naquet and Clemenceau, the Revue Encyclopédique, which being suppressed on its first number, he started La Libre Pensée with Asseline, Condereau, etc. His articles in this journal drew on him and Eudes a condemnation of four months’ imprisonment. He wrote New Researches on Cerebral Congestion, ’68, and was one of the French delegates to the anti-Council of Naples, ’69. Has published Atheism, studies of political science, dated Londres, ’78; a History of England since 1815; and has translated Büchner’s Force and Matter, ’84. He was delegate to the Freethinkers’ International Congress at Antwerp, ’85.

Regnard (Jean François), French comic poet, b. Paris. 8 Feb. 1655. He went to Italy about 1676, and on returning home was captured by an Algerian corsair and sold as a slave. Being caught in an intrigue with one of the women, he was required to turn Muhammadan. The French consul paid his ransom and he returned to France about 1681. He wrote a number of successful comedies and poems, and was made a treasurer of France. He died as an Epicurean, 4 Sept. 1709.

Regnier (Mathurin), French satirical poet, b. Chartres, 21 Dec. 1573. Brought up for the Church, he showed little inclination for its austerities, and was in fact a complete Pagan, though he obtained a canonry in the cathedral of his native place. Died at Rouen, 22 Oct. 1613.

Reich (Eduard) Dr., German physician and anthropologist of Sclav descent on his father’s side, b. Olmütz, 6 March 1839. He studied at Jena and has travelled much, and published over thirty volumes besides editing the Athenæum of Jena ’75, and Universities of Grossenbain, ’83. Of his works we mention Man and the Soul, ’72; The Church of Humanity, ’74; Life of Man as an Individual, ’81; History of the Soul, ’84; The Emancipation of Women, ’84.

Reil (Johann Christian), German physician, b. Rauden, East Friesland, 20 Feb. 1758. Intended for the Church, he took instead to medicine; after practising some years in his native town he went in 1787 to Halle, and in 1810 he was made Professor of Medicine at Berlin University. He wrote many medical works, and much advanced medical science, displacing the old ideas in a way which brought on him the accusation of pantheism. Attending a case of typhus fever at Halle he was attacked by the malady, and succumbed 22 Nov. 1813.

Reimarus (Hermann Samuel), German philologist, b. Hamburg, 22 Dec. 1694. He was a son-in-law of J. A. Fabricus. Studied at Jena and Wittenberg; travelled in Holland and England; and was appointed rector of the gymnasium in Weimar, 1723, and in Hamburg, 1729. He was one of the most radical among German rationalists. He published a work on The Principle Truths of Natural Religion, 1754, and left behind the Wolfenbüttel Fragments, published by Lessing in 1777. Died at Hamburg, 1 March, 1768. Strauss has written an account of his services, 1862.

Reitzel (Robert), German American revolutionary, b. Baden, 1849. Named after Blum, studied theology, went to America, walked from New York to Baltimore, and was minister to an independent Protestant church. Studied biology and resigned as a minister, and became speaker of a Freethought congregation at Washington for seven years. Is now editor of Der Arme Teufel of Detroit, and says he “shall be a poor man and a Revolutionaire all my life.”

Remsburg (John E.), American lecturer and writer, b. 1848. Has written a series of pamphlets entitled The Image Breaker, False Claims of the Christian Church, ’83, Sabbath Breaking, Thomas Paine, and a vigorous onslaught on Bible Morals, instancing twenty crimes and vices sanctioned by scripture, ’85.

Renan (Joseph Ernest), learned French writer, b. Tréguier (Brittany) 27 Feb. 1823. Was intended for the Church and went to Paris to study. He became noted for his linguistic attainment, but his studies and independence of thought did not accord with his intended profession. My faith, he says was destroyed not by metaphysics nor philosophy but by historical criticism. In ’45 he gave up all thoughts of an ecclesiastic career and became a teacher. In ’48 he gained the Volney prize, for a memoir on the Semitic Languages, afterwards amplified into a work on that subject. In ’52 he published his work on Averroës and Averroïsm. In ’56 was elected member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in ’60 sent on a mission to Syria; having in the meantime published a translation of Job and Song of Songs. Here he wrote his long contemplated Vie de Jesus, ’63. In ’61 he had been appointed Professor of Hebrew in the Institute of France, but denounced by bishops and clergy he was deprived of his chair, which was, however, restored in ’70. The Pope did not disdain to attack him personally as a “French blasphemer.” The Vie de Jesus is part of a comprehensive History of the Origin of Christianity, in 8 vols., ’63–83, which includes The Apostles, St Paul, Anti-Christ, The Gospels, The Christian Church, and Marcus Aurelius, and the end of the Antique World. Among his other works we must mention Studies on Religious History (’58), Philosophical Dialogues and Fragments (’76), Spinoza (’77), Caliban, a satirical drama (’80), the Hibbert Lecture on the Influence of Rome on Christians, Souvenirs, ’84; New Studies of Religious History,’84; The Abbess of Jouarre, a drama which made a great sensation in ’86; and The History of the People of Israel, ’87–89.

Renand (Paul), Belgian author of a work entitled Nouvelle Symbolique, on the identity of Christianity and Paganism, published at Brussels in 1861.

Rengart (Karl Fr.), of Berlin, b. 1803, democrat and freethought friend of C. Deubler. Died about 1879.

Renard (Georges), French professor of the Academie of Lausanne; author of Man, is he Free? 1881, and a Life of Voltaire, ’83.

Renouvier (Charles Bernard), French philosopher, b. Montpellier, 1815. An ardent Radical and follower of the critical philosophy. Among his works are Manual of Ancient Philosophy (2 vols., ’44); Republican Manual, ’48; Essays of General Criticism, ’54; Science of Morals, ’69; a translation, made with F. Pillon, of Hume’s Psychology, ’78; and A Sketch of a Systematic Classification of Philosophical Doctrines, ’85.

Renton (William), English writer, b. Edinburgh, 1852. Educated in Germany. Wrote poems entitled Oil and Water Colors, and a work on The Logic of Style, ’74. At Keswick he published Jesus, a psychological estimate of that hero, ’76. Has since published a romance of the last generation called Bishopspool, ’83.

Rethore (François), French professor of philosophy at the Lyceum of Marseilles, b. Amiens, 1822. Author of a work entitled Condillac, or Empiricism and Rationalism, ’64. Has translated H. Spencer’s Classification of Sciences.

Reuschle (Karl Gustav), German geographer, b. Mehrstetten, 12 Dec. 1812. He wrote on Kepler and Astronomy, ’71, and Philosophy and Natural Science, ’74, dedicated to the memory of D. F. Strauss. Died at Stuttgart, 22 May, 1875.

Revillon (Antoine, called Tony), French journalist and deputy, b. Saint-Laurent-les Mâcon (Ain), 29 Dec. 1832. At first a lawyer in ’57, he went to Paris, where he has written on many journals, and published many romances and brochures. In ’81 he was elected deputy.

Rey (Marc Michel), printer and bookseller of Amsterdam. He printed all the works of d’Holbach and Rousseau and some of Voltaire’s, and conducted the Journal des Savans.

Reynaud (Antoine Andre Louis), Baron, French mathematician, b. Paris, 12 Sept. 1777. In 1790 he became one of the National Guard of Paris. He was teacher and examiner for about thirty years in the Polytechnic School. A friend of Lalande. Died Paris, 24 Feb. 1844.

Reynaud (Jean Ernest), French philosopher, b. Lyons, 14 Feb. 1806. For a time he was a Saint Simonian. In ’36 he edited with P. Leroux the Encyclopédie Nouvelle. He was a moderate Democrat in the Assembly of ’48. His chief work, entitled Earth and Heaven, ’54, had great success. It was formally condemned by a clerical council held at Périgueux. Died Paris, 28 June, 1863.

Reynolds (Charles B.), American lecturer, b. 4 Aug. 1832. Was brought up religiously, and became a Seventh Day Baptist preacher, but was converted to Freethought. He was prosecuted for blasphemy at Morristown, New Jersey, May 19, 20, 1887, and was defended by Col. Ingersoll. The verdict was one of guilty, and the sentence was a paltry fine of 25 dollars. Has written in the Boston Investigator, Truthseeker, and Ironclad Age.

Reynolds (George William MacArthur), English writer; author of many novels. Wrote Errors of the Christian Religion, 1832.

Rialle (J. Girard de), French anthropologist, b. Paris 1841. He wrote in La Pensée Nouvelle, conducted the Revue de Linguistique et de Philologie comparée, and has written on Comparative Mythology, dealing with fetishism, etc., ’78, and works on Ethnology.

Ribelt (Léonce), French publicist, b. Bordeaux 1824, author of several political works and collaborator on La Morale Indépendante.

Ribeyrolles (Charles de), French politician, b. near Martel (Lot) 1812. Intended for the Church, he became a social democrat; edited the Emancipation of Toulouse, and La Réforme in ’48. A friend of V. Hugo, he shared in his exile at Jersey. Died at Rio-Janeiro, 13 June, 1861.

Ribot (Théodule), French philosopher, b. Guingamp (Côtes du-Nord) 1839; has written Contemporary English Psychology ’70, a resume of the views of Mill, Bain, and Spencer, whose Principles of Psychology he has translated. Has also written on Heredity, ’73; The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, ’74; The maladies of Memory, personality and Will, 3 vols.; and Contemporary German Psychology. He conducts the Revue Philosophique.

Ricciardi (Giuseppe Napoleone), Count, Italian patriot, b. Capodimonte (Naples), 19 July, 1808, son of Francesco Ricciardi, Count of Camaldoli, 1758–1842. Early in life he published patriotic poems. He says that never after he was nineteen did he kneel before a priest. In ’32 he founded at Naples Il Progresso, a review of science, literature, and art. Arrested in ’34 as a Republican conspirator, he was imprisoned eight months and then lived in exile in France until ’48. Here he wrote in the Revue Indépendante, pointing out that the Papacy from its very essence was incompatible with liberty. Elected deputy to the Neapolitan Parliament, he sat on the extreme left. He wrote a History of the Revolution of Italy in ’48 (Paris ’49). Condemned to death in ’53, his fortune was seized. He wrote an Italian Martyrology from 1792–1847 (Turin ’56), and The Pope and Italy, ’62. At the time of the Ecumenical Council he called an Anti-council of Freethinkers at Naples, ’69. This was dissolved by the Italian government, but it led to the International Federation of Freethinkers. Count Ricciardi published an account of the congress. His last work was a life of his friend Mauro Macchi, ’82. Died 1884.

Richepin (Jean), French poet, novelist, and dramatist, b. Médéah (Algeria) in 1849. He began life as a doctor, and during the Franco-German war took to journalism. In ’76 he published the Song of the Beggars, which was suppressed. In ’84 appeared Les Blasphèmes, which has gone through several editions.

Richer (Léon), French Deist and journalist, b. Laigh, 1824. He was with A. Guéroult editor of l’Opinion Nationale, and in ’69 founded and edits L’Avenir des Femmes. In ’68 he published Letters of a Freethinker to a Village Priest, and has written many volumes in favor of the emancipation of women, collaborating with Mdlle. Desraismes in the Women’s Rights congresses held in Paris.

Rickman (Thomas Clio), English Radical. He published several volumes of poems and a life of his friend Thomas Paine, 1819, of whom he also published an excellent portrait painted by Romney and engraved by Sharpe.

Riem (Andreas), German rationalist b. Frankenthal 1749. He became a preacher, and was appointed by Frederick the Great chaplain of a hospital at Berlin. This he quitted in order to become secretary of the Academy of Painting. He wrote anonymously on the Aufklaring. Died 1807.

Ritter (Charles), Swiss writer b. Geneva 1838, and has translated into French Strauss’s Essay of Religious History, George Eliot’s Fragments and Thoughts, and Zeller’s Christian Baur and the Tübingen School.

Roalfe (Matilda), a brave woman, b. 1813. At the time of the blasphemy prosecutions in 1843, she went from London to Edinburgh to uphold the right of free publication. She opened a shop and circulated a manifesto setting forth her determination to sell works she deemed useful “whether they did or did not bring into contempt the Holy Scriptures and the Christian Religion.” When prosecuted for selling The Age of Reason, The Oracle of Reason, etc., she expressed her intention of continuing her offence as soon as liberated. She was sentenced to two months imprisonment 23 Jan. ’44, and on her liberation continued the sale of the prosecuted works. She afterwards married Mr. Walter Sanderson and settled at Galashiels, where she died 29 Nov. 1880.

Robert (Pierre François Joseph), French conventionnel and friend of Brissot and Danton, b. Gimnée (Ardennes) 21 Jan. 1763. Brought up to the law he became professor of public law to the philosophical society. He was nominated deputy for Paris, and wrote Republicanism adapted to France, 1790, became secretary to Danton, and voted for the death of the king. He wrote in Prudhomme’s Révolutions de Paris. Died at Brussels 1826.

Robertson (A. D.), editor of the Free Enquirer, published at New York, 1835.

Robertson (John Mackinnon), Scotch critic, b. Arran, 14 Nov. 1856. He became journalist on the Edinburgh Evening News, and afterwards on the National Reformer. Mr. Robertson has published a study of Walt Whitman in the “Round Table Series.” Essays towards a Critical Method, ’89, and has contributed to Our Corner, Time, notably an article on Mithraism, March, ’89, The Westminster Review, etc. He has also issued pamphlets on Socialism and Malthusianism, and Toryism and Barbarism, ’85, and edited Hume’s Essay on Natural Religion, ’89.

Roberty (Eugène de), French positivist writer, of Russian birth, b. Podolia (Russia), 1843; author of works on Sociology, Paris, ’81, and The Old and the New Philosophy, an essay on the general laws of philosophic development, ’87. He has recently written a work entitled The Unknowable, ’89.

Robin (Charles Philippe), French physician, senator member of the Institute and of the Academy of Medecine, b. Jasseron (Aix), 4 June, 1821. Became M.D. in ’46, and D.Sc. ’47. In company with Littré he refounded Nysten’s Dictionary of Medicine, and he has written many important medical works, and one on Instruction. In ’72 his name was struck out of the list of jurors on the ground of his unbelief in God, and it thus remained despite many protests until ’76. In the same year he was elected Senator, and sits with the Republican Left. He has been decorated with the Legion of Honor.

Robinet (Jean Baptiste René), French philosopher, b. Rennes, 23 June, 1735. He became a Jesuit, but gave it up and went to Holland to publish his curious work, De la Nature, 1776, by some attributed to Toussaint and to Diderot. He continued Marsy’s Analysis of Bayle, edited the Secret Letters of Voltaire, translated Hume’s Moral Essays, and took part in the Recueil Philosophique, published by J. L. Castilhon. Died at Rennes, 24 March, 1820.

Robinet (Jean Eugène François), French physician and publicist, b. Vic-sur-Seille, 1825. He early attached himself to the person and doctrine of Auguste Comte, and became his physician and one of his executors. During the war of ’70 he was made Mayor of the Sixth Arrondissement of Paris. He has written a Notice of the Work and Life of A. Comte, ’60, a memoir of the private life of Danton, ’65, The Trial of the Dantonists, ’79, and contributed an account of the Positive Philosophy of A. Comte and P. Lafitte to the “Bibliothèque Utile,” vol. 66, ’81.

Roell (Hermann Alexander), German theologian, b. 1653, author of a Deistic dissertation on natural religion, published at Frankfort in 1700. Died Amsterdam, 12 July, 1718.

Rogeard (Louis Auguste), French publicist, b. Chartres, 25 April, 1820. Became a teacher but was dismissed for refusing to attend mass. In ’49 he moved to Paris and took part in the revolutionary movement. He was several times imprisoned under the Empire, and in ’65 was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for writing Les Propos de Labienus (London, i.e. Zürich), ’65. He fled to Belgium and wrote some excellent criticism on the Bible in the Rive Gauche. In ’71 he assisted Pyat on Le Vengeur, and was elected on the Commune but declined to sit. An incisive writer, he signed himself “Atheist.” Is still living in Paris.

Rokitansky (Karl), German physician and scientist, founder of the Viennese school in medicine, b. Königgrätz (Bohemia) 11 Feb. 1804, studied medicine at Prague and Vienna, and received his degree of Doctor in ’28. His principal work is a Manual of Practical Anatomy, ’42–6. Died Vienna, 23 July, 1878.

Roland (Marie Jeanne), née Phlipon, French patriot, b. Paris, 17 March, 1754. Fond of reading, Plutarch’s Lives influenced her greatly. At a convent she noted the names of sceptics attached and read their writings, being, she says, in turn Jansenist, stoic, sceptic, atheist, and deist. The last she remained, though Miss Blind classes her with Agnostics. After her marriage in 1779 with Jean Marie Roland de la Platiêre (b. Lyons, 1732), Madame Roland shared the tasks and studies of her husband, and the Revolution found her an ardent consort. On the appointment of her husband to the ministry, she became the centre of a Girondist circle. Carlyle calls her “the creature of Simplicity and Nature, in an age of Artificiality, Pollution, and Cant,” and “the noblest of all living Frenchwomen.” On the fall of her party she was imprisoned, and finally executed, 8 Nov. 1793. Her husband, then in hiding, hearing of her death, deliberately stabbed himself, 15 Nov. 1793.