son's English tour in 1847-48 was arranged by him, and he wrote a biography of Emerson which confesses his ethical faith. An admirable little anthology, which is known to many as The Book-Lover's Enchiridion (1883), was compiled by Ire land. D. Dec. 7, 1894.
"IRON, Ralph." See Schreiner, Olive.
Isoard Delisle, Jean Baptiste Claude, French writer. B. 1743. He was an Oratorian priest, who accepted the ideas of the philosophers and quitted the Church to join them. A very learned but inelegant writer, he published more than a hundred books, for one of which, his Deistic Philosophic de la nature (1769), he was condemned to perpetual exile. Public indignation in Paris was so great that he was pardoned, and he continued his educa- tional and Rationalist activity. His His- toire des homines (1781) runs to forty-one volumes, and is the most readable of his works. Delisle as he was generally called was one of the most fertile writers of the time, and a man of immense erudition and of original ideas. He remained until death a Deist, and somewhat amused his Atheistic colleagues by writing a Memoire en faveur de Dieu (1802). D. Sep. 22, 1816.
Jacob, General John, soldier and author. B. Jan. 11, 1812. Ed. Addis- combe College. In 1828 he obtained a commission in the Bombay Artillery, and during the Mutiny he commanded "Jacob s Irregular Horse," which rendered splendid service. In 1843 he was appointed political superintendent of the frontier of Upper Sind, and he was made Brigadier- General during the Persian War in 1857. In addi- tion to a few works on his campaigns and on army reform, General Jacob issued for private circulation in 1855 a thoughtful work on religious questions, entitled Letters to a Lady on the Progress of Being in the Universe. He dismisses the teaching of Christianity as "nursery tales" (p. 17), and professes a high-minded Theism. D. Dec. 5, 1858.
Jacobsen, Jens Peter, Danish botanist and novelist. B. Apr. 7, 1847. Ed. Copenhagen University. Jacobsen won the university gold medal for a botanical essay, and had a sound knowledge of that science, but he was more attracted to litera ture. His novel Mogens (1872) opened a career of distinction in fiction, and his Marie Grubbe (1876) and NielsLyhne (1880) and other stories gave him the first place among the novelists of Denmark. His Rationalism is apparent in the most popular of his novels ; but, apart from them, he did much for the popularization of Darwinism in his country. He translated into Danish Darwin s Origin of Species and Descent of Man, and was associate-editor of the New Danish Monthly. Danish Rationalists regard him as one of the leading champions of enlightenment as well as one of their most brilliant literary men. D. Apr. 30, 1885.
Jacolliot, Louis, French writer. B. 1806. He studied law, and entered the French magistrature. For twenty years (1843-63) he was President of the Court at Chandernagor, in the French Indies, and he devoted his leisure to a thorough study of native languages and religions. After his return to France he embodied his Rationalist conclusions in La bible dans VInde (1868), which set up a great con troversy. This was followed by Fetichisme, polijtheisme, monotheisme (1875), Histoire naturelle et sociale de I humanite (1884), and other Rationalistic works, besides a few novels and volumes of travel. D. 1890.
James, Henry, O.M., novelist. B. (America) Apr. 15, 1843. Ed. New York, Switzerland, France, London, and Harvard Law School. James was educated for the law, but in 1869 he abandoned it for letters, producing his first story, Watch and Ward, in 1871. From that time until the end of the
century he issued about forty books, mostly
