Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/450

 VACQUEEIE

VAMBERY

rieure. After teaching for some years in provincial colleges, Vacherot won his doc torate in 1833, and four years later he was appointed Director of Studies at the Ecole Normale. In 1838 he became superinten dent of the lectures on philosophy, and in the following year he succeeded Cousin at the Sorbonne. His fine Histoire Critique de I ecole d Alexandrie (3 vols., 1846-51) was crowned by the Institut, in spite of violent opposition from the clergy. In 1852 they succeeded in getting him deposed, and he retired to write and study. For a book which he wrote in 1862, in which he expressed his Republican creed, he got a year in prison. He was a philosopher of the rare type of active fighting spirits, and he had a good share in the struggle against the reaction of the Second Empire. In 1868, after three years opposition from the clergy, he was admitted to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. In 1871 he was elected to the National Assembly, where he supported Thiers. His political views were more moderate after 1870, but he was never more than a Pantheist in religion (La religion, 1868 ; La science et la conscience, 1870 ; etc.). He was Vice- President of the Education Commission in 1870. His &quot;God&quot; was, he explained, &quot;the ideal of perfection in the mind of man &quot; ; and he rejected immortality. D. July 29, 1897.

YACQUERIE, Auguste, French poet and dramatist. B. 1819. Vacquerie s brother married a daughter of Victor Hugo, and he became an enthusiastic follower of the poet. In 1840 he published his first volume of verse, L enfer de I esprit, but he was at that time chiefly known as a brilliant journalist. In 1844 he presented at the Odeon a translation of the Antigone of Sophocles. When Victor Hugo founded the Evenement, Vacquerie was one of the ablest members of the editorial staff. It was suppressed at the coup d etat of 1851, and the brilliant group was scattered. Vacquerie voluntarily accompanied Victor Hugo in exile, though he continued to 827

produce plays at the Paris theatres. In 1871 he began to edit the Eappel. His Rationalist views are best seen in his long philosophical poem Futura (1890). D. Feb. 19, 1895.

YALE, Gilbert, American writer. B. (London) 1788. Ed. London. Vale began to study for the Church, but he abandoned it, and in 1829 migrated to the United States. He became a teacher of navigation in New York, and an active spirit in the Free Inquirers Association. For several years he edited The Citizen of the World, and he later founded and edited The Beacon. In his profession he made several inven tions. &quot; Mr. Vale was a Freethinker,&quot; says Appleton s Cyclopaedia of American Bio graphy, &quot;and all his writings are arguments for his peculiar tenets.&quot; His chief works were Fanaticism, its Source and Influence (1835) and a Life of Thomas Paine (1841), which includes letters of Paine to Washing ton that had been suppressed in earlier Lives. D. Aug. 17, 1866.

YAMBERY, Professor Armin, Jewish- Hungarian philologist and traveller. B. Mar. 19, 1832. Ed. Gymnasium of St. Georgen and Pressburg University. His parents were poor, and he had to support himself while he was at college. He had a remarkable gift for learning languages. He knew a dozen before he was twenty years old, and he went to Constantinople to teach European languages. He became private tutor to the sons of Pasha Hussein Daim and a full Osmanli. When he had acquired a score of oriental languages and dialects, he, in disguise, joined a caravan which was making the pilgrimage to Mecca, and almost reached the sacred shrine. He went on to England, where he wrote his Travels in Central Asia (1864). On his return to Hungary he was appointed professor of oriental languages at Budapest University. Vamb6ry was one of the most famous travellers and one of the best linguists of modern times. He wrote works in various languages (including a 828