Bayrhoffer (Karl Theodor), German philosopher, b. Marburg, 14 Oct., 1812, wrote The Idea and History of Philosophy (1838), took part in the revolution of ’48, emigrated to America, and wrote many polemical works. Died near Monroe, Wisconsin, 3 Feb. 1888.
Beauchamp (Philip). See Bentham and Grote.
Beausobre (Louis de), b. at Berlin, 22 Aug. 1730, was adopted by Frederick the Great out of esteem for his father, Isaac Beausobre, the author of the History of Manicheanism. He was educated first at Frankfort-on-Oder, then at Paris. He wrote on the scepticism of the wise (Pyrrhonisme du Sage, Berlin, 1754), a work condemned to be burnt by the Parliament of Paris. He also wrote anonymously The Dreams of Epicurus, and an essay on Happiness (Berlin, 1758), reprinted with the Social System of Holbach in 1795. Died at Berlin, 3 Dec. 1783.
Bebel (Ferdinand August). German Socialist, b. Cologne, 22 Feb. 1840. Brought up as a turner in Leipsic. Since ’63, he became distinguished as an exponent of social democracy, and was elected to the German Reichstag in ’71. In the following year he was condemned (6 March) to two years’ imprisonment for high treason. He was re-elected in ’74. His principal work is Woman in the Past, Present and Future which is translated by H. B. A. Walther, 1885. He has also written on the Mohammedan Culture Period (1884) and on Christianity and Socialism.
Beccaria (Bonesana Cesare), an Italian marquis and writer, b. at Milan, 15 March, 1738. A friend of Voltaire, who praised his treatise on Crimes and Punishments (1769), a work which did much to improve the criminal codes of Europe. Died Milan, 28 Nov. 1794.
Beesly (Edward Spencer), Positivist, b. Feckenham, Worcestershire, 1831. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he took B.A. in 1854, and M.A. in ’57. Appointed Professor of History, University College, London, in 1860. He is one of the translators of Comte’s System of Positive Polity, and has published several pamphlets on political and social questions.
Beethoven (Ludwig van), one of the greatest of musical composers, b. Bonn 16 Dec. 1770. His genius early displayed itself, and at the age of five he was set to study the works of Handel and Bach. His many compositions are the glory of music. They include an opera “Fidelio,” two masses, oratorios, symphonies, concertos, overtures and sonatas, and are characterised by penetrating power, rich imagination, intense passion, and tenderness. When about the age of forty he became totally deaf, but continued to compose till his death at Vienna, 26 March, 1827. He regarded Goethe with much the same esteem as Wagner showed for Schopenhauer, but he disliked his courtliness. His Republican sentiments are well known, and Sir George Macfarren, in his life in the Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography, speaks of him as a “Freethinker,” and says the remarkable mass in C. “might scarcely have proceeded from an entirely orthodox thinker.” Sir George Grove, in his Dictionary of Music and Musicians, says: “Formal religion he apparently had none,” and “the Bible does not appear to have been one of his favorite books.” At the end of his arrangement of “Fidelio” Moscheles had written, “Fine. With God’s help.” To this Beethoven added, “O man, help thyself.”
Bekker (Balthasar), Dutch Rationalist, b. Metslawier (Friesland) 20 March, 1634. He studied at Gronigen, became a doctor of divinity, and lived at Francker, but was accused of Socinianism, and had to fly to Amsterdam, where he raised another storm by his World Bewitched (1691), a work in which witchcraft and the power of demons are denied. His book, which contains much curious information, raised a host of adversaries, and he was deposed from his place in the Church. It appeared in English in 1695. Died, Amsterdam, 11 June, 1698. Bekker was remarkably ugly, and he is said to have “looked like the devil, though he did not believe in him.”
Belinsky (Vissarion Grigorevich), Russian critic, b. Pensa 1811, educated at Pensa and Moscow, adopted the Pantheistic philosophy of Hegel and Schelling. Died St. Petersburg, 28 May, 1848. His works were issued in 12 volumes, 1857–61.
Bell (Thomas Evans), Major in Madras Army, which he entered in 1842. He was employed in the suppression of Thugee. He wrote the Task of To-Day, 1852, and assisted the Reasoner, both with pen and purse, writing over the signature “Undecimus.” He contemplated selling his commission to devote himself to Freethought propaganda, but by the advice of his friends was deterred. He returned to India at the Mutiny. In January, 1861, he became Deputy-Commissioner of Police at Madras. He retired in July, 1865, and has written many works on Indian affairs. Died 12 Sept. 1887.
Bell (William S.), b. in Allegheny city, Pennsylvania, 10 Feb. 1832. Brought up as a Methodist minister, was denounced for mixing politics with religion, and for his anti-slavery views. In 1873 he preached in the Universalist Church of New Bedford, but in Dec. ’74, renounced Christianity and has since been a Freethought lecturer. He has published a little book on the French Revolution, and some pamphlets.
Bender (Wilhelm), German Rationalist, professor of theology at Bonn, b. 15 Jan. 1845, who created a sensation at the Luther centenary, 1883, by declaring that the work of the Reformation was incompleted and must be carried on by the Rationalists.
Bennett (De Robigne Mortimer), founder and editor of the New York Truthseeker, b. of poor parents, Springfield (N.Y.), 23 Dec. 1818. At the age of fifteen he joined the Shaker Society in New Lebanon. Here he stayed thirteen years and then married. Having lost faith in the Shaker creed, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he started a drug store. The perusal of Paine, Volney, and similar works made him a Freethinker. In 1873, his letters to a local journal in answer to some ministers having been refused, he resolved to start a paper of his own. The result was the Truthseeker, which in January, 1876 became a weekly, and has since become one of the principal Freethought organs in America. In 1879 he was sentenced to thirteen months’ imprisonment for sending through the post a pamphlet by Ezra H. Heywood on the marriage question. A tract, entitled An Open Letter to Jesus Christ, was read in court to bias the jury. A petition bearing 200,000 names was presented to President Hayes asking his release, but was not acceded to. Upon his release his admirers sent him for a voyage round the world. He wrote A Truthseeker’s Voyage Round the World, Letters from Albany Penitentiary, Answers to Christian Questions and Arguments, two large volumes on The Gods, another on the World’s Sages, Infidels and Thinkers, and published his discussions with Humphrey, Mair, and Teed, and numerous tracts. He died 6 Dec. 1882.
Bentham (Jeremy), writer on ethics, jurisprudence, and political economy, b. 15 Feb. 1748. A grand uncle named Woodward was the publisher of Tindal’s Christianity as Old as the Creation. Was educated at Westminster and Oxford, where he graduated M.A. 1767. Bentham is justly regarded as the father of the school of philosophical Radicalism. In philosophy he is the great teacher of Utilitarianism; as a jurist he did much to disclose the defects of and improve our system of law. Macaulay says he “found jurisprudence a gibberish and left it a science.” His most pronounced Freethought work was that written in conjunction with Grote, published as An Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion, by Philip Beauchamp, 1822. Among his numerous other works we can only mention Deontology, or the Science of Mortality,