EOOEDA VAN EYSINGA
EOSNY
lative Assembly, and later to the National
Convention. He rendered much service to
the Republic, especially in connection with
education ; but his best-known work was
the creation of the Eepublican Calendar.
He was a very able mathematician, and
the scientific part of his work was adopted ;
but the names of months, weeks, and days
which he wished to substitute (somewhat
in anticipation of Comte) for the old clerical
names were not accepted. He also com
piled the Annuaire for the instruction of
the people, and was very active in the
interest of moderation and sober idealism,
and in promoting the cult of Eeason.
Being condemned to death, in one of the
unhappy political quarrels, he committed
suicide on June 17, 1795.
ROORDA YAN EYSINGA, Sicco Ernst Willem, Dutch writer. B. Aug. 8, 1825. After some years in the Dutch civil service in Java, he, like other Eationalists, attacked the Government for exploiting the natives of the East Indies, and he was compelled to leave the country for France and Switzer land. He was a Positivist, and contributed to the Dutch Eationalist paper, De Dageraad, as well as to the Bevue Positive. D. Oct. 23, 1887.
ROSE, Ernestine Louise Lasmond PotoYsky, Polish-American reformer. B. Jan. 13, 1810. Born in Poland, of a Jewish rabbi named Potovsky, Ernestine read and travelled, and at an early age she rejected the Jewish creed. She visited Germany and France, and in 1829 came to England, where she embraced the views of Eobert Owen and became an ardent follower. She married William E. Eose, and in 1836 migrated with him to America. For more than thirty years Mrs. Eose was one of the most strenuous and most eloquent of the band of American women who fired their sisters to rebellion against tradition. She openly professed Atheism (and wrote a Defence of Atheism) ; but her advocacy of women s rights, the abolition of slavery, and every humanitarian cause made her
679
one of the foremost women lecturers of the
time. Putnam says in his Four Hundred
Years of Freethouglit (p. 495) that " no
orthodox man could meet her successfully
in the arena of debate." She returned to
live in England in 1873, and " until death
she was a champion of Freethought "
(Putnam says). The date of her death is-
not given.
ROSENKRANZ, Professor Johann Karl Friedrich, German philosopher. B. Apr. 23, 1805. Ed. Berlin, Halle, and Heidelberg Universities. In 1831 he was- appointed professor of philosophy at Konigsberg University. During the Eevo- I lution of 1848 he was Councillor to the- Ministry of Cults, and at the failure of the Eevolution he resumed his chair, and held it until he became totally blind. Eosenkranz. was one of the ablest and most widely cultivated of the followers of Hegel, and one of the most advanced in his application of the Hegelian ideas. He organized an Encyclopaedia of learning on a Hegelian basis, edited the works of Kant, and wrote many volumes on philosophy. His Eation- alism is found in his Naturreligion (1831) and a work on Diderot (1866). D. June 14,. 1879.
ROSKOFF, Professor Georg Gustav,.
German ethnologist. B. Aug. 30, 1814. Ed. Halle University. In 1844 he went to study at the Protestant College at Vienna, and became a professor there in 1864 he resigned his connection, and joined the staff of the Austrian Council of Education. Many of Eoskoff s works (Die- hebraischen Alterthiimer in Briefen, 1857 ;. Die Simsonsage und die Heraklesmythus,. 1860; etc.) are Eationalistic, and still useful to Eationalists, His study of the origin of early religion (Das JReligionswesen der rohesten Naturvolker, 1880) is one of the best of its kind for the time. D. Oct. 20, 1889.
ROSNY, Joseph Henri, French novelist, B. 1856. Ed. Ecole Normale de Bruxelles.. 680
