Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/121

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CLOOTZ


COHEN


CLOOTZ, Baron Jean Baptiste de,

German reformer. B. June 24, 1755. Ed. Paris. Settling in Paris, and greeting the new ideas with enthusiasm, Clootz relin quished his title and adopted the classic name of " Anacharsis." He used his wealth for the propagation of humani- tarianism, travelling extensively over Europe in order to spread the light. At the Eevolution he was one of the " depu ties from all parts of the globe " who saluted the Assembly. France was to him the Vatican of Eeason," and he had an important part in establishing the Festivals of Eeason. Eobespierre hated his Atheism (or Pantheism he sometimes spoke of God in humanity), and drew odious attention to his wealth and nobility. In the end he mounted the guillotine with perfect serenity, young and high-minded as he was. Clootz was not the rabid enthu siast he is often described, but a highly cultivated man of lofty ideals, and much esteemed by the philosophers. D. Mar. 23, 1794.

C LOUGH, Arthur Hugh, poet. B. Jan. 1, 1819. Ed. Chester, Eugby, and Oxford (Balliol). In 1842 Clough became a Fellow of Oriel, and in 1843 tutor, but he courageously faced his doubts, partly under the influence of Emerson, and resigned his position in 1848. " Of joining any sect I have not the most distant intention," he wrote at the time (Prose Remains of A. H. Clough, 1888, p. 39). From 1849 to 1852 he was head of University Hall, London, and, after a year in America, he was appointed examiner under the Education Department. His poetic production had opened in 1847 with his Ambarvalia, and the few volumes which followed raised him high in the esteem of his cultivated con temporaries. Carlyle spoke of him as " the most high-principled man he had ever known"; and Jowett, who quotes this, adds that he had " a kind of faith in knowing nothing " (Letters, p. 177). His letters contain Theistic expressions, but a memo randum on his religious views, written near

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the close of his life and added to his Prose Remains, shows that he rejected Unitarian- ism (p. 419) and all Christian doctrines, and was little removed from Agnosticism. D. Nov. 13, 1861.

CLOUSTON, Sir Thomas, M.D., LL.D., F.E.S.E., physician. B. Apr., 1841. Ed. Edinburgh University. Clouston was Physician Superintendent of the Eoyal Edinburgh Asylum from 1873 to 1915, and Lecturer on Mental Diseases at Edinburgh University. He was President of the Edinburgh Eoyal College of Physicians in 1902-3, and was for some years editor of the Journal of Mental Science. He was knighted in 1911. In addition to many works on mental disease he published a small book, Morals and Brain (1911), in which he belittles the influence of Chris tianity (though the book forms part of the semi-religious New Tracts for the Times). In a larger work, Unsoundness of Mind (1911), he plainly avows that mind cannot exist apart from brain (p. 44), and has many strictures on what he calls " reli gionists." D. Apr. 18, 1915.

COHEN, Chapman, third President of the National Secular Society. B. Sep. 1, 1868. Mr. Cohen began to give Free- thought lectures in 1890, and he was recognized in a few years as the chief colleague and probable successor of Mr. Foote. When Mr. Foote died, in 1915, he was unanimously elected President of the National Secular Society and became editor of the Freethinker. He has done valuable work for Eationalism in exposing the follies of foreign missions and in vindi cating the right of bequest [see BOWMAN] , and has written on freewill and other Eationalist topics.

COHEN, Professor Hermann, Ph.D.,

Jewish philosopher. B. July 4, 1842. Ed. Dessau Gymnasium, Breslau Jewish Seminary, and Breslau, Halle, and Berlin Universities. In 1873 he became teacher, and in 1875 professor, of philosophy at

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