Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/87

 BOWMAN

BEADLAUGH

(1897), show that he disliked controversy and rarely spoke about religion, but was an Agnostic. He was an ardent admirer of Jowett. In a letter to a cousin in 1868 he urges her to keep away from all &quot; moods and phases of theological discussion,&quot; and says that &quot; the true heroes of life are often to be found among those on whose fearless advocacy of what they believe the world is making social war &quot; (p. 126). Sir H. G. Cunningham also reproduces a poem of his, &quot;To Hermione,&quot; which is entirely

Agnostic :

the illimitable sigh

Breathed upward to the throne of the deaf skies.

the shore,

The brighter shore we reach, I only know That it is night, Hermione, mere night Unbroken, unillumined, unexplored.

Baron Bowen was a man of very high

culture and character. D. Apr. 10, 1894.

BOWMAN, Charles, testator of the &quot; Bowman Bequest.&quot; There are few details about Mr. Bowman, whose generous bequest to the Secular Society, Limited, led to the establishment of the security of Eationalist bequests, except that he was .an early member of the National Secular Society and used to attend its lectures in London. He died in Apr., 1908, and had a Secularist funeral. His will, dated Sep. 14, 1905, left his estate (about 10,000) to his wife for life, with reversion, subject to a few small legacies, to the Secular Society, Limited. Mrs. Bowman, a Secularist, died in 1914, and the relatives contested the will on the ground that bequests to anti-religious bodies are illegal. The Secular Society, Limited, won in the first

court on Apr. 15, 1915, the Court of Appeal on July 13, 1915, and the House of Lords

on May 14, 1917. Legacies to Kationalist bodies are now quite safe.

BOYESEN, Professor Hjalmar Hjorth,

Swedish-American writer. B. Sep. 23, 1848. Ed. Christiania and Leipzig Uni versities. He emigrated to America in 1869, and became editor of a Scandinavian 101

paper at Chicago. From 1874 to 1880 he was professor of German at Cornell Uni versity, and he was professor at Columbia University from 1880 to 1895. Boyesen wrote a number of novels, some poetry, and a series of literary works of a Eation alist character (Essays on Scandinavian Literature, Essays on German Literature, Goethe and Schiller, etc.). D. Oct. 5, 1895.

BRABROOK, Sir Edward William,

C.B., anthropologist. B. 1839. Ed. private school, Barr. Sir Edward was appointed Assistant Eegistrar of Friendly Societies in 1869, and was Chief Eegistrar from 1891 to 1904. In 1898 he was President of Section H of the British Association, and in 1903 of Section F. He was also Presi dent of the Anthropological Institute (1895-97) and President of the Folk-Lore Society (1901-2). He is a Foreign Associate of the Paris Society of Anthro pology, and Director of the Society of Antiquaries. His works deal chiefly with the Friendly Societies, but he has written many papers (sometimes in the Literary Guide) on anthropology. He is an Honorary Associate of the Eationalist Press Association.

BRADLAUGH, Charles, reformer. B. Sep. 26, 1833. At the age of eleven he was compelled to quit the elementary school and earn his living, and a few years later he was converted to Free- thought and virtually driven from his father s house. He joined the army, but got his discharge in 1853, and became a solicitor s clerk. Adopting the name of &quot; Iconoclast,&quot; he now frequently wrote and lectured against Christianity, and in 1858 he began to edit the Investigator. By 1860, when he founded the National Reformer, he was known throughout the country as a Secularist lecturer and debater, and he took an active part in progressive political movements at home and on the Continent. He was a Vice- President of the National Eeform League. 102