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 Homœopathic 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.