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 TUENEE

TUENEE

a conspicuous figure in the Eationalistic salons, and was one of the most widely cultivated men of the time. His position imposed prudence ; but he wrote various articles for the Dictionnaire Encyclopedique, and in 1753 he published a Lettre sur la tolerance and Le conciliateur, which dis pleased the clergy. From 1761 to 1774 he was Intendant of the financial province of Limoges. Already a convert to the Physio- cratic School, Turgot applied their ideas with great zeal to one of the poorest provinces of France, and his reforms attracted general attention. He wrote also a number of economic works (chiefly Reflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses, 1765). His appointment as Minister of Marine and Controller General of Finance in 1774 was &quot; hailed with enthusiasm by the philosophers &quot; ; and every historian records the wonderful work he did for the decaying credit of France. His ideas were very progressive and en lightened, though he defended the absolute monarchy (on reformed lines). His political and clerical enemies united, and caused his fall in 1776. He spent the remainder of his life in literary and scientific studies, and in 1777 became Vice- President of the Academy of Inscriptions. Turgot was not only one of the greatest of French states- men, and one of the chief founders of the science of political economy (he had much influence on Adam Smith and later writers), but he was a high-minded humanitarian with a &quot; passion for truth and justice.&quot; Beyond his eloquent plea for toleration he wrote nothing on religion ; but his associa tion with the great Parisian Eationalists of the time was open and notorious. He was either a Deist or Pantheist. D. Mar. 18, 1781.

TURNER, Joseph Mallord William,

painter. B. Apr. 23, 1775. Ed. New Brentford and Margate. Turner, who was the son of a London barber, had an un happy home and little schooling circum stances which overshadowed his life. He never acquired any foreign language, and

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his knowledge, apart from his art, was very limited. He began in his fourteenth year to receive lessons in drawing, and in 1789 became a student at the Eoyal Academy. His first picture was exhibited at the Academy in 1790, and in 1799 he was elected Associate. By 1793 he had a high reputation for water-colours, and he then turned to oil-painting, soon giving proof of his genius. He became an Aca demician in 1802, at the early age of twenty-eight. In 1808 he was appointed professor of perspective at the Academy. In 1806 his Goddess of Discord and Sun Rising Through Vapour had made a great impression ; but his best period opened with Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus in 1829 and closed with his Fighting Temeraire in 1839. The Liber Studiorum was published between 1807 and 1819. His genius led to much controversy ; but since the cam paign of Euskin, which began in 1843, he has taken his place among the greatest of British painters. Euskin constantly dwells on the excellence of his character and his generosity ; but the unfortunate circum stances of his youth led to a certain eccentricity of life which lent itself to libel. At his death he left his pictures to the nation, and his entire fortune (140,000) to found a home for decayed British artists. Euskin, who had the greatest regard for him, often speaks of Turner as an &quot;infidel.&quot; His biographer, W. Thornbury, politely regrets that in the hour of death &quot; he had no religious hope to cheer him&quot; (Life of J. M. W. Turner, 1862, ii, 275). P. G. Hamerton, in his Life of Turner (1879), observes that Turner &quot; did not profess to be a member of any visible Church &quot; (p. 367). The truth seems to be that Turner had not a particle of religious belief, and rarely gave a thought to religion. D. Dec. 19, 1851.

TURNER, Matthew, chemist. B. early eighteenth century. Nothing is known about Turner s early years. He was a surgeon in Liverpool in 1762, and he took up the subject of chemistry. It was- after 820