Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/502

 OVEETON

ROBIN

OYERTON, Richard, writer. B. begin ning of the seventeenth century. Overton first makes his appearance in 1642 with a number of pamphlets satirizing the epis copal Church. In 1643 he published a curious work entitled Man s Mortality, which was anti-Christian enough to say that &quot;the present [belief in the] going of the soul into heaven and hell is a mere fiction &quot; ; though the author believed in a general resurrection at the end of the world. The book was much attacked, and Parlia ment was moved to institute an inquiry as to the authorship. Overton had probably had the assistance of Clement Writer [SEE], and both are classed by Professor Masson as &quot; seekers.&quot; In 1646 Overton turned upon the Presbyterian clergy, and warmly denounced all religious persecution. He was arrested (on a political charge) and imprisoned, but the army obtained his release. He continued his campaign, and in 1649 he was lodged in the Tower, from which he maintained his output of fiery and critical pamphlets. He was again released, and once more in prison from 1659 to 1663, after which he is lost to the historian.

PERKIER, Professor Jean Octave Edmond, French zoologist. B. May 9, 1844. Ed. College de Tulle, Lyc6e Bona parte, and Ecole Normale Superieure. In 1867 he was appointed professor at Agen, .and in 1868 assistant naturalist at the Museum of Natural History. Four years later he passed to the Ecole Normale Superieure, and in 1876 he became pro fessor at the Museum of Natural History, .of which he is now the Director. His very numerous works include a Traite de Zoologie of 3,000 pages (1890-1900) and several evolutionary studies (chiefly La philosophic zoologique avant Darwin, 1886, and Le tmnsformisme, 1888). He is a Commander of the Legion of Honour, an Officer of Public Instruction and of Agri cultural Merit, a member of the Institute .and the Academy of Medicine, President of the Acclimatisation Society, Vice-Presi- 931

dent of the General Institute of Psychology and of the Society of Friends of the Museum, and member of the Central Com mission of the Biological, Zoological, and Geological Societies. M. Perrier is frankly Agnostic. &quot; I believe,&quot; he said, in the recent French symposium on Spiritualism (Le Gaulois, Oct. 5, 1920), &quot; that when one is dead, one is dead for a very long time.&quot;

ROBERTS, the Rev. R., lecturer. B. 1843. Ed. Liverpool National School. Mr. Eoberts was apprenticed to engineer ing, but he, in 1870, entered the Bala Welsh Calvinistic Methodist College to study for the ministry. He was expelled for heresy five years later, and he became a Congregationalist minister. After serving for some years at Guisbrough and Leeds, he joined the Unitarian body, and served as minister at Hunslet and Bradford. He at length abandoned every shade of Chris tianity, and established an Ethical Society at Bradford. He is now an Agnostic, and frequently contributes to the Literary Guide. Mr. Eoberts was a member of the Bradford City Council for many years. He was at one time Chairman of the School Board, and later of the Education Committee. For some years he has been engaged as lecturer in poetry by the Brad ford Education Committee.

ROBIN, Professor Edouard Charles Albert, French chemist and physician. B. Sep. 19, 1847. Ed. Lycee de Dijon. In 1865 he was appointed preparer in chemistry to the Dijon Faculty of Sciences, and from 1866 to 1870 he was assistant to Baron Thenard. He was head of the chemical laboratory at the Charite Hos pital from 1877 to 1885, and he is now. professor of therapeutic clinics at the Paris University. He is scientific editor of the Bulletin General de Therapeutique and the New York Herald, Commander of the Legion of Honour, a member of the Academy of Medicine, the Anatomical Society, the Biological Society, the Thera peutic Society, the Chemical Society, and 932