Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/406

 SIMSON

SLACK

advocated natural religion (La religion naturelle, 1856, and La Liberte de con science, 1857). He was admitted to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1863, and was returned to the Chambre in 1869, and to the National Assembly in 1871, when he became Minister of Public Instruction. In 1875 he was created Life- Senator and was admitted to the Academy, and in the following year he was President of the Council and Minister of the Interior. Simon s moderation greatly annoyed aggres sive nationalists after 1870, and he was reactionary in some respects, but he was never more than a Theist (Dieu, Patrie, Libert^ 1883). D. June 8, 1896.

SIMSON, Professor John, M.A., theo logian. B. 1668. Ed. Edinburgh and Leyden Universities. He was appointed librarian at Glasgow University at the close of his scholastic career, but he decided to enter the Church. Licensed to preach in 1698 and ordained in 1705, he was in 1708 placed in the chair of divinity at Glasgow University. His lectures drew upon him the suspicion of heresy as early as 1710, and in 1714 ho was reported to the ecclesiastical authorities. In 1715 the General Assembly of the Scottish Church referred his case to a committee of thirty ministers and six elders, and he was warned to be more careful. In 1726 he was again impeached, on the ground that he denied the divinity of Christ. He was declared orthodox, but his teaching was described as &quot; subversive,&quot; and he was suspended from clerical functions and forbidden to teach. It is difficult to say what Professor Simson really believed, as he never published anything except pam phlets on his protracted trial (The Case, 1715, and Continuations, 1727) ; but he taught that reason was &quot; the foun dation of theology,&quot; and seems to have reached advanced conclusions. D. Feb. 2, 1740.

SINCLAIR, Upton, B.A., American writer. B. Sep. 20, 1878. Ed. College of 739

the City of New York and Columbia- University. He graduated in 1897, and in 1901 opened his literary career with Springtime and Harvest. His powerful story, The Jungle (1906), forced President Koosevelt to have an inquiry made into- the state of the Chicago stockyards. Sin clair assisted in it, and secured many reforms. He, in the same year, organized the New York Home Colony, a small Socialist community, and he founded the- Intercollegiate Socialist Society (a sort of New York Fabian Society). He has written, many novels and Socialist works (notably The Cry for Justice, 1915), and his Ration- alist views are freely expressed in his- present organ, Upton Sinclair s Magazine.. &quot; There are a score of great religions in the-

world and each is a mighty fortress of

graft,&quot; he says (April, 1918). He treats the Churches so drastically in one of his most recent works (The Profits of Religion, 1919) that no publisher would accept it, and he had to publish himself.

SLACK, Henry James, writer. B. Oct. 23, 1818. Ed. private schools. He entered the business world, but in 1846 deserted it for journalism. He worked on the provincial press until 1852, when he began to edit and own the Atlas. At the same time he contributed to the Weekly- Times under the name of &quot; Little John.&quot; From 1862 to 1868 he edited the Intellectual Observer, and from 1868 to 1871 its suc cessor, the Student. He was President of the Eoyal Microscopical Society, and wrote^ The Marvels of Pond Life (1861). Slack, who expounds his moderate Rationalism in The Philosophy of Progress in Human. Affairs (1860, see p. 197, etc.), was a follower of W. J. Fox, of South Place, and shared his Theism. He was ardent for all reform, as well as for popular scientific education. He worked for the final abo lition of slavery, the suppression of paper duties, the elevation of women, the relief of oppressed nationalities, and the ration alization of Sunday. He was President of the Sunday League in 1879, and did much 740