KOBINET
EODIN
universe is alive but its spirit is such that
it was attributed to Diderot and Helvetius.
Eobinet then acknowledged the authorship.
He opened a bookseller s shop, published
Voltaire s Lettres s6cretes, and translated
several works from the Dutch. In 1778
he was appointed Eoyal Censor. There is
an obscure story of conversion in his last
days. D. Mar. 24, 1820.
ROBINET, Jean Francois Eugene,
M.D., French physician and writer. B. Apr. 24, 1825. Ed. Paris University. Dr. Eobinet was the medical attendant and friend of Augusta Comte, who nominated him one of his three executors. He took part in the Eevolution of 1848 and the resistance to the coup d etat of 1851. In the troubles of 1870-71 he was mayor of one of the districts of Paris, and he worked hard to preserve peace. In 1890 Eobinet was appointed to the staff of the library and the historical collections at Paris, and became sub-curator. Besides his valuable work on Comte (Notice sur I oeuvre et sur la vie d Auguste Comte, 1860), he wrote lives of Condorcet, Danton, and a few other works. D. Nov. 3, 1899.
ROBINSON, Henry Crabb, lawyer and journalist. B. Mar. 13, 1775. Ed. private schools. He was articled to a solicitor at Colchester in 1790, and six years later he passed to a solicitor s office in London. In 1798, however, he inherited money and abandoned the law. He travelled over Europe, and studied for three years (1802-1805) at Jena University. For some years he was on the staff of the Times, representing it in Denmark and in the Peninsular War. In 1809 he resumed the study of law, and he was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1813. He retired in 1823. Crabb Eobinson had met Schiller and Goethe at Weimar, and in London he was a friend of Lamb, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, and other eminent literary men. He published nothing during his life, but left behind him a hundred manuscript volumes of diary, letters, and
671
reminiscences. Three volumes of selections
from these (Diary, Reminiscences, and
Correspondence of H. Crabb Robinson] were
published in 1869. Sir A. H. Layard tells
us in his Autobiography that it was largely
the conversation of Crabb Eobinson that
made a Eationalist of him (Autobiography,
1903, i, 56). D. Feb. 5, 1867.
ROD, Professor Louis Edouard, Swiss novelist. B. Mar. 31, 1857. Ed. College de Nyon, and Lausanne, Bonn, and Berlin Universities. Eod went to Paris in 1884, and edited La Revue Contemporaine. He returned to Switzerland two years later, and from 1886 to 1893 he was a professor at Geneva University. From that time until his death he worked in France, and was regarded as one of the most dis tinguished novelists and men of letters. He wore the Cross of the Legion of Honour and the decoration of the Crown of Italy. Until about 1889, when he wrote a pam phlet in defence of Zola s Assommoir, he belonged to the Naturalist and more boldly Eationalistic school. He then fell under the influence of Tolstoi, and joined what he called the Intuitionist school. His Sens de la vie (1888), which won the Prix de Jouy of the Academy, shows that he remained thoroughly sceptical. The section entitled " Eeligion " closes with a drastic piece of prose poetry which he calls an " Atheistic Hymn to the Lord." His Idees morales du temps present (1891) is also interesting in this respect. His attitude was rather emotional than intellectual, and, while Lanson calls him a " Neo-Christian," the Catholic Delfour quotes him saying: " In reality I have the soul of a believer who has fallen into scepticism." D. Jan. 30, 1910.
RODIN, Francois Auguste, D.C.L.,
French sculptor. B. Nov. 4, 1840. Ed. at his uncle s school, Beauvais, and the Paris art-schools. Eodin was born of poor Parisian parents, and he had a hard struggle for education. In 1863 he entered the service of the art-director of the famous 672
