Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/272

 M TAGGART

MAETEKLINCK

1836, iv, 485-90). Lord Coleridge, in a letter to Baron Bramwell of October 18, 1877, speaks of &quot; men so very unclerical as Sir J. Mackintosh, the Mills, Tyndall, and Huxley &quot; (quoted in A Memoir of Baron Bramwell). D. May 30, 1832.

M TAGGART, John MTaggart Ellis,

LL.D., Litt.D., philosopher. B. 1866. Ed. Clifton College and Cambridge (Trinity College). Mr. M Taggart has been a Fellow since 1891, and a lecturer since 1897, at Trinity College. He is one of the most eminent English Hegelians (see his Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic, 1896, and Studies in Hegelian Cosmology, 1901). In the latter work he observes (p. 94) that &quot; the Absolute is not God, and, in consequence, there is no God.&quot; In Some Dogmas of Religion (1906) he sees no reason to think that &quot; positive belief in immortality is true,&quot; and &quot; no reason to suppose that God exists &quot; (p. 291). He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

MADACH, Imre, Hungarian poet. B. Jan. 21, 1823. Ed. Buda Pesth University. He was trained in law, and became Vice- Notary, then Over-Commissary, of his district. In 1852 he was imprisoned for a year for his share in the revolutionary movement, though illness had prevented him from fighting. In 1861 he wrote a long, somewhat Schopenhauerian, poetical chronicle of human history (The Human Tragedy), of a pronounced Eationalist character. His poetic and dramatic works (3 vols., 1880) were extremely popular in Hungary. Madach was a brilliant writer and scholar, a member of the Hungarian Academy. D. Oct. 5, 1864.

MADISON, James, fourth President of the United States. B. Mar. 16, 1751. Ed. private schools and Princeton University. After graduating at Princeton, he remained for a year to study Hebrew ; and he con tinued for some time to make a serious study of theology, as well as of law and history. He had no rival at the time in

471

America in knowledge of history and constitutional law, and his learning and integrity soon won him public recognition. In 1776 he was sent as delegate to the State Convention. Being appointed to a committee for drafting a constitution for the State of Virginia, he protested vehe mently against the religious clause, and got it altered, thus securing complete freedom of conscience. He was elected to the first Virginia legislature, and when, in 1784, a proposal to make contributions to the Churches compulsory was laid before it, Madison again strongly opposed though he was at first almost alone and won the complete separation of Church and State. His political services in other matters were equally important. He became Secretary of State (to Jefferson) in 1801, and he was President of the Eepublic from 1809 to 1817 (two terms). One might infer from his public action that he was, like Adams, Franklin, Washington, and so many of the great early Americans, not more than a Deist, and his letters (published in The Writings of James Madison, 9 vols., 1910) make this quite clear. On Mar. 19, 1823, he protests disdainfully that he will not have the American university turned into &quot; an Arena of Theological Gladiators &quot; (ix, 126). To the end of his days he resisted any concession to the Churches. In 1832 (near the end of his life) he gave, in the course of a letter to a clergyman, w 7 hat seems to have been the extent of his own creed : &quot; There appears to be in the nature of man what ensures his belief in an invisible cause of his present existence, and an anticipation of his future existence &quot; (ix, 485). Theistic expressions never occur in his letters. He seems to have been on the Agnostic side of Deism. D. June 28, 1836.

MAETERLINCK, Maurice, Belgian writer. B. Aug. 29, 1862. Ed. Jesuit College and Ghent University. He studied philosophy and law, and practised as an advocate at Ghent from 1887 to 1896. Since the latter date he has lived at Paris, 472