Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/143

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DEURHOFF


DICKINSON


distinguished scholars. In 1854 he was imprisoned for two years for blasphemy. His diary and letters, with biography, were published by Dodel-Port. D. Mar. 31,

1884.

DEURHOFF, Willem, Dutch philo sophical writer. B. 1650. Deurhoff was a basket maker who studied philosophy and created, and lectured on, a system of his own. It borrowed ideas both from Descartes and Spinoza, and as a follower of Spinoza he was driven from Holland. He called himself a liberal Christian, but his system was Pantheistic. D. Oct. 10, 1717.

DEUTSCH, Emmanuel Oscar Mena- hem, German-Jewish orientalist. B. Oct. 28, 1829. Ed. Neiss, Mislowitz (by an uncle, a rabbi), and Berlin University. Soon after the completion of his academic course Deutsch migrated to London, and in 1855 he was appointed assistant librarian at the British Museum. He was one of the first European scholars of his time in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and his fine essays on the Talmud (1867) and on Islam (1869) in the Quarterly Eevieio brought him a very high reputation. He was an Agnostic (see Literary Remains, 1874, p. xii, etc.), and he wrote a series of scathing articles in the Times on the Vatican Council (1869). D. May 12, 1873.

DEWEY, Professor John, Ph.D., LL.D., American philosopher. B. Oct. 20, 1859. Ed. Vermont and John Hopkin s "Universities. He was instructor in philo sophy at Michigan University 1884-88, professor of philosophy at Minnesota University 1888-89, at Michigan 1889-94, and at Chicago 1902-1904. Since 1904 he has been professor at Columbia Univer sity. Dewey is regarded as the leading American Pragmatist, but he dislikes the title, as it identifies him with the Spiritualist ideas of Professor James (Slosson s Six Major Prophets, 1917, ch. v). In his Influence of Darwinism on Philosophy 213


(1910, p. 15) he says that he is not interested in " an intelligence that shaped things once for all, but the intelligence which things are even now shaping."

DE WORMS, Henry, F.R.S., first Baron Pirbright, politician. B. Oct. 20, 1840. Ed. King s College, London. En tering the Inner Temple in 1860, he was called to the Bar in 1863, but quitted it for business. He was elected M.P. for Greenwich in 1880, and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade 1885-88 and Under- Secretary for the Colonies 1888-92. De Worms was the first Jew to be admitted to the Privy Council, and he was raised to the peerage in 1895. He severed his connection with Judaism in 1886, marrying against the laws of the Synagogue. He wrote The Earth and its Mechanism (1862) and a few other works. D. Jan. 9, 1903.

DIAZ, Porflrio, President of the Repub lic of Mexico. B. Sep. 15, 1830. Ed. in a Catholic Mexican seminary. Diaz, a successful lawyer, early became a leader of the anti-clerical liberals. He fought in the revolutionary army, and was one of its best generals. From 1877 to 1880 he was President, and his rule, though des potic, was so much to the advantage of the country that the law forbidding a second term was amended, and he was again President (1884-1910). "DonPorfirio" was a thorough Rationalist, and he drastically checked the corrupt Church in Mexico. D. July 2, 1915.

DICKINSON, Goldsworthy Lowes,

economist. Ed. Charterhouse and Cam bridge (King s College). He is a fellow and lecturer at King s College, and lecturer at the London School of Economics and Social Science. In addition to w r orks on Greece, political economy, etc., Mr. Dickinson has w r ritten much about reli gion. In the Hibbert Journal (Apr., 1908, p. 515) he writes : " I do not think that a religion which ought properly to be called 214