Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/188

 GKANT DUFF

GEEEN

was remarkable for &quot;a man who is not a religious man.&quot; E. D. Mansfield, another fervent Christian (A Popular and Authentic Life of U. S. Grant, 1868), has to omit all reference to his religion. Grant was baptized only when he was unconscious and believed to be dying, and on recovery he remarked that he was &quot; surprised.&quot; D. July 23, 1885.

GRANT DUFF, the Right Honourable Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone, M.A., F.E.S., G.G.S.I., statesman. B. Feb. 21, 1829. Ed. Edinburgh Academy, the Grange School, and Oxford (Balliol). He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1854, and he entered politics a few years later. He was M.P. for Elgin Burghs 1857-81, Under- Secretary for India 1868-74, Under-Secretary for the Colonies in 1880, and Governor of Madras 1881-86. His record of Indian administration is distinguished for conscientious and en lightened work. He was Lord Rector of Aberdeen University 1866-72, President of the Eoyal Geographical Society 1889-93, and President of the Eoyal Historical Society 1892-99 ; and he was admitted to the Privy Council in 1901. Grant Duff was a great admirer of Eenan, and agreed with him that it is &quot; impossible to control the human intellect by creeds or articles of any sort or kind&quot; (Ernest Eenan, p. 2). He was a Theist. D. Jan. 12, 1906.

GRAY, Benjamin Kirkman, economist. B. Aug. 11, 1862. Ed privately. After some years in a London warehouse he became a teacher (1883-86), and then a Congregationalist minister. In 1894 he passed to the Unitarian ministry, but three years later he left the Unitarians and devoted himself to social work and eco nomics. He was a special authority on the economics of philanthropy (History of English Philanthropy, 1905, etc.), on which he lectured at the London School of Eco nomics. Gray \vas a Socialist, and a &quot; mystic and freethinker &quot; (H. B. Binns, A Modern Humanist, 1910). D. June 23, 1907. 303

GREARD, OctaYe Yallery Clement,

D. es L., French educationist. B. Apr. 18, 1828. Ed. Ecole Normale. After teaching for some years, he became Director of Primary Education at Paris in 1865, and Inspector-General in 1872. The Catholics forced Jules Simon to dismiss him from the higher post, and he returned to the office of Director. Jules Ferry spoke of him in 1877 as &quot; the first educationist in France,&quot; and Leon Bourgeois says that he &quot; created the new [secular] education in the primary schools of the Eepublic.&quot; He was admitted to the Academy of Moral and Political Science (1875), to the Legion of Honour (1884), and to the French Academy (1886). Bourgan (Octave Greard) records that he never returned to the Catholic Church which he had quitted, though he was a Theist. D. Apr. 25, 1904.

GREEN, John Richard, historian. B. Dec. 12,1837. Ed. Magdalen College School, private tutors, and Oxford (Jesus). Green went to Oxford &quot; a passionate High Churchman,&quot; but in the course of his two years there became &quot; irreligious &quot; (Letters of J. E. Green, 1901, p. 18). Dean Stanley partially restored his faith, and he took orders and did clerical work until 1869. He then abandoned the Church and began to write his Short Histori/ of the English People (published 1874). In this and his later works, which put him in the front rank of English historians, he avoids religious controversy, but in his letters he proposes to &quot; fling to the owls and bats these old and effete theologies of the world s childhood&quot; (p. 292) and develop a &quot; Eational religion.&quot; He scouts Chris tianity and has no &quot; real faith in a here after&quot; (p. 312). D. Mar. 7, 1883.

GREEN, Joseph Frederic, Positivist. B. July 5, 1855. Ed. Islington Proprietary School, Oxford (St. Mary s Hall), and London (King s College). He was a minister of the Church of England from 1880 to 1886. Quitting the Church, he became secretary of the International 304