Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/167

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FOSCOLO


FOX


philosophy and empirical psychology in a system which he called " Transcendental Pantheism." His chief work is System der Psychologie (2 vols., 1855) ; but his Pantheism is best expounded in his Dar- stellunq und Kritik der Beiveise des Dasein Gottes (1840). D. Nov. 8, 1884.

FOSCOLO, Nicolo Ugo, Italian poet. B. Jan. 26, 1778. Ed. Spalato, and Venice and Padua Universities. An enthusiastic follower of Alfieri [SEE] , he in 1797 pub lished a Deistic tragedy (Tieste), for which he was called before the Venetian Inquisi tion. He warmly greeted the French Eevolution and Bonaparte, and served in the French Army. In 1809 he was appointed professor of rhetoric at Pavia University, but the return of the Austrians drove him to Switzerland. Ho settled in London in 1816, and was much esteemed as a lecturer, writer, and scholar. His works were published in eleven volumes (1850-59), and there are biographies by Pecchio, Carrer, Artusi, Winckels, Palla- veri, and others. D. Sep. 14, 1827.

FOUILLEE, Professor Alfred Jules Emile, Ph.D., French sociologist. B. Oct. 18, 1838. He taught philosophy at, in succession, Louhans, Auxerre, Douai, and Montpellier. In 1872 he was appointed Master of Conferences at the Bordeaux Normal School, but his health compelled him to retire in 1875. He won general regard by a theory of " idea-forces " (La psychologic, des idees-forces, 1893) as the real sources of progress. Fouillee was a spiritual and eclectic thinker, blending a Platonic idealism with modern evolution, but holding aloof from Christianity. D. July 16, 1912.

FOURIER, Baron Jean Baptiste Joseph, French mathematician. B. Mar. 21, 1768. Ed. Auxerre Military School. He entered a monastery, but quitted it before taking the vows, and became pro fessor at the Auxerre Military School. During the Kevolution he was an active 261


Jacobin, though a distinguished scholar and professor at the Polytechnic ; and he was one of the chief men of science taken by Bonaparte to Egypt. Napoleon made him Prefect of the Isere Department and Baron (1808). He entered the Academy of Sciences in 1817, in spite of clerical- royalist opposition, and the Academy of France in 1827. He was also corre sponding member of the London Eoyal Society and other learned bodies. His Theorie analytique de la chaleur (1822) and other works are classics. D. May 16, 1830.

FOURIER, Francois Marie Charles,

French political economist. B. Apr. 7, 1772. Son of a wealthy merchant and himself prosperous in trade, the corruption he saw inspired him with Socialistic ideas. In 1808 he expounded his social system in his Theorie des quatre mouvements, and he wrote many other works. Fourierism was little noticed until near the end of his life. Fourier was mystic, but non-Christian. D. Oct. 8, 1837.

FOX, the Right Honourable Charles James, statesman. B. Jan. 24, 1749. Ed. Eton and Oxford (Hertford College). Son of Baron Holland [SEE] , he entered Par liament as a Tory in 1768, became Junior Lord of the Admiralty in 1770, and (having passed to the Whigs) Lord of the Treasury in 1773 and Foreign Secretary in 1782. His powerful and brilliant oratory was used constantly in the service of reform. He opposed the American and French Wars, greeted the fall of the Bastille as "one of the greatest and best events in history," pleaded the abolition of the Slave Trade and the removal of the disabilities of Catholics and Dissenters, and pressed for Parliamentary Eeform. He was the most enlightened, and one of the ablest, of British statesmen of the period, and, though he wrote nothing, he was a man of rare culture. His private life was much criticized, but Gibbon, who knew him well, says : " Perhaps no human being was ever 262