Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/169

 FEANCE

FEANKLAND

in 1852, he and the Chapel abandoned Unitarian orthodoxy and reached a liberal Theism. He was one of the chief speakers of the Anti-Corn Law League and an advo cate of disestablishment and secular educa tion. See Life of W. J. Fox, by Dr. E. and E. Garnett (1910). D. June 3, 1864.

FRANCE, Jacques Anatole, French novelist. B. Apr. 16, 1844. Ed. College Stanislas, Paris. He inaugurated his great literary career with a biographical study, Alfred de Vigny, in 1868, followed by Poemes dorcs in 1873. Meantime he worked at journalism, and he was librarian at the Senate. In 1881 his Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard opened his brilliant series of novels. He was admitted to the Legion of Honour in 1895, and to the Academy in 1896. Besides his novels France has written a drastic criticism of the Church, L eglise et la republique (1905) ; and his complete rejection of all religious doctrines is recorded in an interview in A. Brisson s work, Les Prophetes (1903). M. France is Honorary President of the French National Association of Free thinkers. In the course of a piquant letter which he addressed to the Free- thought Congress at Paris in 1905, he said : &quot; The thoughts of the gods are not more unchangeable than those of the men who interpret them. They advance but they always lag behind the thoughts of

men The Christian God was once a

Jew. Now he is an anti-Semite.&quot;

FRANCK, Professor Adolph, French philosopher. B. Oct. 9, 1809. Ed, Nancy and Toulouse. He became professor of philosophy at the College Charlemagne in 1840, and member of the Institut and pro fessor of classical languages at the College de France in 1844 ; and he was professor of law at the same college 1858-81. Franck was a Eationalistic Jew, and author of many works on philosophy, law, ethics, and Judaism. He edited the Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques (6 vols., 1843-49). D. Apr. 11, 1893.

265

^ FRANCOIS DE NEUFCHATEAU, Count Nicolas Louis, French poet and statesman. B. Apr. 17, 1750. Ed. Jesuit College, Neuf chateau. A volume of poems (Poesies diverses) which he published in his fifteenth year secured for him admission into four provincial academies. The town of Neufchateau adopted him (hence his name), and Voltaire tried to secure him as secretary. He studied law and became Lieutenant-General, then General Procu rator of Haiti. He accepted the moderate principles of the Eevolution, sat in the Legislative Assembly, and was Minister of the Interior 1797-99 and Director in 1798. In 1804 Napoleon made him Count and President of the Senate. His literary output was very great, and he remained a Deist to the end (see, especially, Le Con- servateur, 2 vols., 1800). D. Jan. 10, 1828.

FRANKLAND, Sir Edward, K.C.B., Ph.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.E.S., chemist. B. Jan. 18, 1825. Ed. Eoyal Grammar School, Lancaster. He was apprenticed to chemistry in 1840, and in 1847-48 taught the science at Queenwood College. Tyndall and he then spent a year at Mar burg University. In 1850 he accepted the chair of chemistry at Putney Engineering College, and began to do distinguished work in his science. In 1857 he received the royal medal of the Eoyal Society, and became lecturer on chemistry at St. Bar tholomew s Hospital. He passed to the Eoyal Institution in 1863, and to the Eoyal College of Chemistry in 1865. Frankland was, says Professor Hartog, &quot;an exceptionally brilliant and accom plished man of science &quot; (Diet. Nat. Biog.), and was loaded with honours. He won the Copley Medal, and was corresponding member of the French, Berlin, Bavarian, Petrograd, Bohemian, and Upsala Aca demies of Science. He was President of the Chemical Society 1871-73, and of the Institute of Chemistry 1877-80. Very religious in his youth, he came to abandon &quot;the fundamental dogmas of the Christian religion,&quot; including a personal God and 266