EOSSETTI
ROTTECK
anything but a severe thinker. He was
very anti-scientific, and was at one time
attracted by the medieval glamour of Rome
and at another by the specious promise of
Spiritualism. He had, however, a disdain
of creeds as such, and he remained an
Agnostic all his life. He was " a decided
sceptic professed no religious faith and
practised no regular religious observances " (Memoir prefixed to his Works, i, 114). D. Apr. 9, 1882.
ROSSETTI, William Michael, writer, brother of Dante Gabriel. B. 1829. Ed. King s College School. In 1845 he entered the Excise Department of the Civil Service. He was promoted Assistant Secretary in the Excise Office in 1869, and retired in 1894. Rossetti s interest in art and letters was therefore cultivated in his leisure. In 1848 he joined the Pre-Raphaelites, and edited their organ, The Germ. He trans lated Dante s Inferno, edited Blake (1913) and many other poets, and wrote a Life of Keats (1887) and a number of other literary works. He edited Dante Gabriel s works and wrote several volumes on him. In the lengthy memoir which he prefixes to Blake s poems he incidentally expresses his own Rationalist views. D. Feb. 5, 1919.
ROSSMASSLER, Emil Adolf, German naturalist. B. Mar. 3, 1806. Ed. Leipzig University. Rossmiissler was trained in theology, but he developed Rationalist views, and turned to what was then called natural history. He was a professor at the Academy of Agriculture at Tharandt from 1830 onward. In 1848 he\vas elected to the Frankfort Parliament, and was active among the most radical. For this he was prosecuted, and, although he was acquitted, he lost his chair, and took to the popu larization of science, in which he attained distinction. He was a good zoologist, and wrote a standard Ikonographie der euro- pdischen Land- und Siissivassermollusken (3 vols., 1835-62). But his main task was the scientific education of the public, and his chief work Der Menscli im Spiegel der 685
Natur (5 vols., 1850-55). See also his
autobiography, Mein Leben und Streben im
Verkehr mit der Natur. D. Apr. 8, 1867.
ROSTAND, Edmond, French dramatist. B. Apr. 1, 1868. Ed. College Stanislas, Paris. He studied law, but he spent his early years as a clerk in a bank. The few poems he wrote at this stage show that he had adopted Rationalist views. In 1894 he gave a first proof of his dramatic power by producing Les romanesques, which had a fair success, and he applied himself seriously to the stage. Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) gave him a world-wide reputation, which was sustained by L Aiglon (1900) and Chantecler (1910). He was admitted to the French Academy in 1901, and was regarded as one of the greatest of modern French playwrights. Rostand had a very high and serious conception of dramatic art, which his humour concealed from the general public. He considered that the theatre must now undertake the function of the superannuated creeds. Jules Haraszti (Edmond Rostand, 1913) quotes him saying : "It is now only in the theatre that souls can feel their wings." Haraszti, who seems to be religious, plaintively remarks that Rostand overlooked the churches. D. Dec. 2, 1918.
ROTTECK, Professor Karl Wenzeslaus Rodecker von, German jurist and historian. B. July 18, 1775. Ed. Freiburg University. In 1798 he was appointed professor of history at Freiburg University, and in 1818 he passed to the chair of natural law and state science. His outspoken Rationalism led to frequent collisions with the autho rities. He was elected to the Senate in 1819, and, when the reactionaries fiercely attacked and defeated him, he was returned to the Chamber of Deputies, where he led the Liberals for ten years. In 1832 he was ejected from his chair, and his journal, the Freisinnige, was suppressed. When he was elected Mayor of Freiburg, the autho rities quashed the election. Rotteck was a zealous worker for reform and education,
686
