Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/453

 VAUGHAN

VAUVENARGUES

by Hogel, Vatke was in 1837 appointed extraordinary professor at the University. Although he taught there with great dis tinction for fifty years and refused a chair at Berne University, he never became ordinary professor, his Rationalist views exciting bitter hostility from the orthodox theologians. He wrote only two books, but his Religion des Alien Testaments nach den kanonischen Bilchern entioickelt (1835) was one of the foundations of the science of Biblical criticism ; and both that and his Menschliche Freiheit (1841) are Hegelian in philosophy. In spite of the charges of heresy, Vatke is now constantly quoted as a Protestant divine ; but the Allegemeine Deutsche Biographic shows from his corre- pondence with Strauss, of whom he was a warm friend, that he was a thorough Rationalist. &quot; Are we Christians ? &quot; he asks in one letter; and he replies that they are not in either the customary or the primitive-Christian sense. In reply to the further question, &quot; Have we any reli gion ? &quot; he can say only that he believes in Hegel s Absolute. D. Apr. 19, 1882.

YAUGHAN, Professor Henry Halford,

historian. B. Aug., 1811. Ed. Rugby and Oxford (Christ Church). In 1836 he was elected Fellow of Oriel, and he gained the Chancellor s Prize for an English essay. He was called to the Bar (Lincoln s Inn) in 1840, but he never practised as a barrister. In 1841 he was appointed clerk of assize on the South Wales circuit, and in 1843 temporary assistant to the Poor Law Commission. During all these years he was more interested in philosophy and history, and in 1848 he was made professor of modern history at Oxford University. He resigned, after a distinguished career, in 1858. In 1861 he served on the Public Schools Commission. Vaughan was engaged for many years on a work on Man s Moral Nature, which would doubtless have given us his Rationalist philosophy, but he seems to have destroyed the manuscript. Dr. Jowett, who thought him &quot; the most brilliant of all Dr. Arnold s pupils,&quot; says 833

in a letter to Sir B. Brodie (at the time when Vaughan went to Oxford) that Vaughan s opinions about religion go far beyond his own, and had better be con cealed at Oxford (Letters of Benjamin Joiuett, p. 159). His chief works were General Lectures on Modern History (1849)

I and Neio Readings and New Renderings of Shakespeare s Tragedies (3 vols., 1878-86).

! D. Apr. 19, 1885.

YAUGHAN, Percy, lawyer. Vaughan was educated in law, and practised for some years as a barrister in London. He had begun in 1902 to read Rationalist literature, and he soon became an Agnostic. He was for some years a Director of the Rationalist Press Association, and his fine culture and personality were very generously contributed to the work of the Association. He was associate editor of &quot; The Inquirers Library.&quot; He had published only Early Shelley Pamphlets and a reprint of Shelley s Necessity of Atheism when the War put a premature close to his very promising career. He had volunteered for hospital work at the beginning of the War. In 1915 he joined the Anti-Aircraft Corps, and served in France. He was gazetted second lieutenant in the R.G.A. in 1916, and was sent to Flanders. Vaughan had only just returned to the Front, after an illness, when he was instantaneously killed, on Sep. 26, 1917.

YAUYENARGUES, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de, French moralist. B. Aug. 6, 1715. Ed. College d Aix. He chose a military career, and served in the Italian and Bohemian campaigns. His health was ruined, and he retired and devoted himself to study and writing. He was a friend of Voltaire and Marmontel. The only work he published during his life was his Introduction d la connaissance de I esprit humain (1746), to which was appended his famous Reflexions et Maximes. It was published anonymously, the year before his death, and the fine literary quality and elevated moral tone gave Vauvenargues a 834 2P