Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/437

 TISSOT

TOLAND

96) was one of the finest astronomical works of the period, and his Leqons de cosmographie (1895) and other manuals were of high academic value. D. Oct. 20, 1896.

TISSOT, Professor Pierre Francois,

French historian. B. Mar. 10, 1768. Ed. College Louis le Grand. Tissot was trained in law, and he entered the Civil Service at Paris. During the Eevolution he volun teered for the Vendean War (against the Catholic Eoyalists). He was afterwards appointed on the Commission of Fine Arts. Narrowly escaping destruction with &quot;the Mountain,&quot; he quitted public life for a time and became an artisan. The Direc torate recalled him to the Civil Service, and under Napoleon (1810) he became assistant professor of Latin poetry at the College de France. He had published, in 1800, a translation of Vergil s Bucolics. In 1813 he was appointed professor. The Bourbons deposed him, but the Eevolution of 1830 restored his position. He founded the Pilote in 1823, and it was suppressed by the clergy. Later he edited the Gazette de France. He was admitted to the Academy in 1833 for his Etudes sur Virgile. The most important of his many works was his Histoire complete de la revolution Franqaise (6 vols., 1833-36). Tissot was staunchly anti-clerical and Bonapartist. D. Apr. 7, 1854.

TOCCO, Professor Felice di, Italian philosopher. B. Sep. 11, 1845. #d. Naples and Bologna Universities. Tocco occupied the chair of philosophy for some years at Pisa University, and from there he passed to the Institute of Higher Studies at Florence. He is associate editor of the Eivista Bolognese, and member of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Societe Eeale di Napoli, and the Dantesca Italiana. An admirer both of Dante and Giordano Bruno, he has edited the works of Bruno and written very sympathetically on medieval heresy (L eresia net media evo, 1884; Giordano Bruno, 1886; etc.). He 801

is a moderate Kantist (Lezioni di filosofia, 1869, etc.). D. 1911.

TOLAND, John, M.A., Irish Deist. B. Nov. 30, 1670. Ed. Glasgow College, and Leyden and Oxford Universities. There is some evidence, by no means decisive, that Toland, who was born in north Ireland, was the natural son of a priest. He was, at all events, reared as a Catholic, but he was already Protestant when he was sent to Glasgow. He adopted Ration alism at Leyden, and his first Deistic work, Christianity not Mysterious, was written at Oxford in 1695 (and published in 1696). He professed to be a Christian, but rejected mysteries. His work opened the Deistic struggle, and was presented by the grand jury of Middlesex. Toland retired to Ireland, where he was violently assailed from the pulpits, and the Irish House of Commons ordered the burning of his book and the arrest of the author. He went back to London, and devoted himself to letters, editing Milton s prose works and writing a Life of Milton (1698) and a number of political pamphlets. He had to endure much privation and persecution, and for some years Shaftesbury allowed him 20 a year. A brilliant linguist and most accomplished man, he was received with great honour at the courts of Hanover, Berlin, Vienna, and Holland ; and to the Queen of Prussia he dedicated his Letters to Serena (1694), which Lange finds Materialistic. He still professed to be a Christian (on natural lines) ; but his later pamphlets (Nazarenus, 1718 ; Pantheisti- con, 1720; etc.) are plainly Deistic and against all supernaturalism. In an epitaph which he wrote for himself he expressed a belief that he would &quot;rise again,&quot; but &quot;certainly not the same Toland.&quot; It was an age of clerical despotism and fierce persecution, so that Toland s very high ability was never properly applied to his task ; but he was one of the first to speak boldly of the natural and mythological character of Christian teaching. D. Mar. 11, 1722.

802

2E