FOOTE
FOETLAGE
producing some unsuccessful plays and
poems, he published his Dialogues des
Morts (1683) and La Plurality des Mondes
(1686). Both are Eationalistic. Fon-
tenelle was a Cartesian Theist, and he is
regarded as a forerunner of the Deists.
He entered the Academy in 1691, and
became its Perpetual Secretary in 1697.
His collected works were published in
eleven vols. 1758. D. Jan. 9, 1757.
FOOTE, George William, President of the National Secular Society and of the Secular Society, Ltd. B. Jan. 11, 1850. He came to London from Devonshire in 1868, and, having already rejected Chris tianity, he joined the Young Men s Secular Association. He taught in the Hall of Science Sunday School and wrote in the National Reformer. In 1876 he established the Secularist with Holyoake, and became sole editor of it after a few issues. In 1879 he edited the Liberal, and in 1881 he founded the Freethinker. He was pro secuted in 1883 for blasphemy, by pub lishing in it (among other things) certain Comic Bible Sketches, and suffered twelve months hard labour in Holloway Gaol. From 1883 to 1887 he edited Progress. He succeeded Bradlaugh as President of the National Secular Society. Mr. Foote, who professed Atheism, was a lecturer and debater of great power, and wrote a number of Freethought works. He was an assidu ous student of English literature, and his journalistic work was distinguished by a rare fineness and strength. It was mainly through his instrumentality that the legality of bequests for Freethought purposes was established a victory with which his name will always be identified. D. Oct. 17, 1915.
FORBERG, Friedrich Karl, German philosopher. B. Aug. 30, 1770. He became a teacher of philosophy at Jena in 1792, and professor in 1793. At first a Kantian, he adopted the ideas of Fichte, and was involved with him in the charge of Atheism. He retired from the teaching of philosophy, and, after publishing his 259
defence (Apologie seiner angeblichen Atheis-
mus, 1799), became archivist, councillor,
and librarian at Coburg. Forberg was a
less religious Pantheist than Fichte. D.
Jan 1, 1848.
FOREL, Professor Auguste, Swiss naturalist. B. Sep. 1, 1848. Ed. Zurich and Vienna "Universities. At first assistant physician in Munich Asylum (1873-79), he was then appointed professor of psychi atry at Zurich University and Director of the Asylum. Forel is a scholar of remark able range and power. His work on ants (Eng. trans., Ants, 1904) won the Academy prize; and he is an authority on the anatomy of the brain, insanity, prison reform, social morals, temperance, etc. Other works of his translated into English are The Hygiene of Nerves and Mind (1907), The Senses of Insects (1908), and The Sexual Question. His chief Rationalist work is Vie et Mort (1908). He describes himself as " an Agnostic " (Was Wir E. Haeckel Verdanken, i, 242), and is a founder of the German Monist Association.
FORLONG, Major-General James George Roche, writer. B. Nov. 1824. He was trained as an engineer, and entered the service of the Indian Army in 1843. He was head of the Survey Bureau 1861-71, Superintendent Engineer in Cal cutta 1872-76, then Secretary and Chief Engineer to the Government of Oudh. Forlong had at first done missionary work among the natives, but the study of com parative religion opened his eyes. See his Rivers of Life (2 vols., 1883), which Mr. J.M.Eobertson describes as a "great work." He was an Honorary Associate of the Eationalist Press Association, and left a sum of money to it at his death. D. 1904.
FORTLAGE, Professor Karl, German psychologist. B. June 12, 1806. He became a teacher at Heidelberg in 1821, at Berlin in 1845, and professor of philo sophy at Jena in 1846. Originally an Hegelian, he attempted to blend Fichte s 260
