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