Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/235

 KEANE

KEENE

began in 1875 to contribute to the Socialist press, and in 1883 he established the Neue Zcit, the weekly organ of his school, at Stuttgart. Like all the other continental Socialist leaders, Kautsky has no religion but Socialism. His opinion of religion may be read in his Sozial Demokratie und die Katholische Kirche (1902) and Der Ursprung des Christenthums (1908). He has written a number of works on politics and economics.

KEANE, Professor Augustus Henry,

LL.D., F.R.G.S., anthropologist. B. (Cork) June 1, 1833. Ed. Jersey, Italy, Dublin, and Hanover. Keane was educated for the Catholic priesthood, but he discarded his orders and his creed, and took to travel and the study of ethnology. He joined the Anthropological Institute in 1879, and he was put on the council in the following year. In 1886 he was elected Vice-Presi dent of the Institute. In 1883 he was appointed professor of Hindustani at Uni versity College, and in 1897 he was put on the Civil List &quot; for his labours in the field of ethnology.&quot; His Man: Past and Present (1899) and Ethnology (1901) are authori tative manuals ; and his World s Peoples (1908) and other ethnological and geo graphical works had a wide circulation. Keane was a corresponding member of the Anthropological Societies of Italy and Washington, and he had several academic honours in recognition of his numerous and learned papers. D. Feb. 3, 1912.

KEARY, Charles Francis, M.A., writer. B. 1848. Ed. Marlborough School and Cambridge (Trinity College). Mr. Keary was on the staff of the British Museum, and he wrote several novels and a number of esteemed works on Norway, comparative religion, and various other subjects (Outlines of Primitive Belief, 1882 ; The Vikings of Christendom, 1890, etc.). His Rationalist views are set forth in his Pursuit of Reason (1910). He puts Christian doctrines dis dainfully aside, and believes only in the existence of the Absolute. D. Oct. 26, 1917.

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KEATS, John, poet. B. (London) Oct. 31, 1795. Ed. Enfield. He was apprenticed to a surgeon in 1810, but he broke off the apprenticeship in 1814 and studied at St. Thomas s and Guy s Hos pitals. In 1816 he became a dresser at Guy s Hospital, and passed as licentiate. Encouraged by Leigh Hunt, he abandoned surgery for poetry, which he had long culti vated, and published Poems of John Keats (1817). Endymion (1818) had little more success with the public, but Hyperion (1820) convinced the world of his power. He was, however, already in consumption. Leigh Hunt, his chief friend, and Shelley, Dilke, and other Rationalists, persuaded him that &quot; nothing in the world is prove- able.&quot; Endymion is &quot; a very pretty piece of Paganism &quot; (Wordsworth), and the sonnet, &quot;Written in Disgust of Vulgar Super stition&quot; (1901 ed., ii, 174), could hardly reject Christianity more drastically :

The church bells toll a melancholy round

Still, still they toll, and I should feel a damp, A chill as from a tomb, did I not know

That they are dying like an outburnt lamp ; That tis their sighing, wailing ere they go Into oblivion ; that fresh flowers will grow,

And many glories of immortal stamp.

W. Sharp relates in his Life of Severn (1892, p. 85), which is authoritative, that Keats persevered in Rationalism to the end, and died without any belief in a future life. D. Feb. 23, 1821.

KEENE, Charles Samuel, artist. B. Aug. 10, 1823. Ed. Ipswich Grammar School. Disliking the work of his father s (a solicitor) office, he was apprenticed to architecture, and later to wood engraving. After serving his time he devoted himself to the illustration of books and periodicals, some of his work winning the Gold Medal of the Paris Exhibition in 1890. His con nection with Punch began in 1854. Keene was a man of high and modest character, and a thorough Rationalist. When Holman Hunt tried to persuade him, in his last illness, of a future life, he said : &quot; Do you really believe this ? I can t think so &quot; 398