Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/408

 SMITH

SMITH

dispute about his opinions. The Diet. Nat. Biog. concludes that he was a &quot; sincere Deist,&quot; and &quot; no an orthodox believer.&quot; Chalmers actually complains that his bio grapher, Dugald Stewart, has made no reference to his &quot;infidelity,&quot; and describes his Life of Hume as &quot; a powerful blow against Christianity, and to give propor tionable support to the cause of Deism.&quot; D. July 17, 1790.

SMITH, George Augustus, B.A., mer chant. B. Aug. 15, 1861. Ed. University College, London. Mr. Smith was trained for the Swedenborgian ministry, but he left that body in 1882, and entered the business world. In 1887 he married Hilda Caroline Miall, B. A. (daughter of the editor of the Non conformist), and Mrs. Miall-Smith has been closely associated with him in his devoted work for the Ethical Movement for many years. He was nine years on the St. Pancras Borough Council, has been on the Council of the Union of Ethical Socie ties since its foundation, and is treasurer of the Civic Education League. He is now editor of the Humanist, and is, in business, managing director of the firm of John Smith (London Wall) Ltd.

SMITH, Gerrit, American philan thropist. B. Mar. 6, 1797. Ed. Hamil ton s College. He became a lawyer, and practised with distinction in both the State and Federal Courts. In 1853 he was elected to Congress ; but the corruption of the American political world outraged his fine sentiments, and he immediately with drew. He had inherited a large fortune from his father, and, like so many wealthy American Eationalists (Girard, Lick, Fels, etc.), his generosity was remarkable. In gifts of land to needy families and other private benefactions he gave away about eight million dollars. He was equally generous with personal service, in the Abolitionist and other reform movements. He was a Theist, and expounded his views in The Religion of Reason (1864) and Nature the Base -of a Free Theology (1867). 743

He dissented from all the Churches, and tried to establish an independent church (a sort of Theistic Ethical Society) and preached for it. There is a biography of Smith by O. B. Frothingham. D. Dec. 28, 1874.

SMITH, Professor Goldwin, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., historian. B. Aug. 13, 1823. Ed. Eton and Oxford (University College). He won the Hertford scholarship in 1842, the Ireland scholarship and the Chancellor s prize for Latin verse in 1845, the Latin Essay in 1846, and the English Essay in 1847. Choosing the law, he entered at Lincoln s Inn in 1842, and was called to the bar in 1850 ; but he turned at once from law to literature and journalism. From 1858 to 1866 he was Regius professor of modern history at Oxford. Smith had conveyed to America a message of British sympathy with the north in 1864, and been warmly received. When his father committed suicide in 1867, he migrated to the United States, and was appointed honorary professor of English constitu tional history at Cornell. The corrupt public life of the United States drove him in 1871 to Canada, where he lived for the rest of his life. His works are numerous, and his Eationalist views may be traced in his Guesses at the Riddle of Existence (1897), Lines of Religious Inquiry (1904), In Quest of Light (1906), and No Refuge but in Truth (1908). He had adopted advanced ideas in his undergraduate days, and as a professor at Oxford he had worked openly for the abolition of clerical control. In Toronto he used to attend church, and his occasional utterances were puzzling. In his last work, however, No Refuge but in Truth, he entirely rejects the Christian creed, while pleading for its ideals ; he leaves open the question of a future life; and he accepts &quot;some moral power,&quot; but thinks it &quot; impossible that we should ever have direct proof through human observation and reasoning of the existence of Deity&quot; (p. 31). D.June 7, 1910.

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