VEITCH
VERDI
high reputation. It is generally described
as " deeply religious "; but the fact that it
was Voltaire who made the fortune of the
book he described it as " one of the best
I know for the formation of character "-
sufficiently indicates that his friend was
merely a fervent Deist. D. May 28, 1747.
YEITCH, Professor John, LL.D., philo sopher and historian. B. Oct. 24, 1829. Ed. Peebles High School and Edinburgh University. He entered the New College at Edinburgh to prepare for the Free Church ministry, but deserted theology and went back to the University. Under heavy pressure from his parents he again tried theology in 1850, but he was too honest a Rationalist to continue. He became a tutor. His letters show that he had already abandoned Christianity. In one of them, written from Edinburgh, he pens a remarkable eulogy of Shelley, and says : " With all his blasphemy and denun ciation of Deity and Christianity, I im mensely prefer him to all the whining evangelicals I ever heard or read of " (Memoir of John Veitch, by M. R. L. Bryce, 1896, pp. 67-69). In 1856 he was appointed assistant to Sir W. Hamilton in the chair of logic and metaphysics at Edinburgh University ; in 1860 professor of logic, rhetoric, and metaphysics at St. Andrews ; and in 1864 professor of logic and rhetoric at Glasgow, where he remained until he died. He wrote a number of philosophical works, a History and Poetry of the Scottish Border (2 vols., 1893), and several small volumes of verse. Veitch was a Theist of the sentimental Words worth school, but far less definite in his natural theology than Wordsworth. "I know no theory of the relation of the infinite to the finite which is not merely a wandering in cloud-land," he said (chapter on " The Theism of Wordsworth " in his Essays in Philosophy, second series, 1895, p. 200). D. Sep. 3, 1894.
YERA, Professor Augusto, Ph.D., Italian philosopher. B. May 4, 1813.
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Ed. Rome University. Son of a Ration
alist lawyer, Vera was trained in law, but
he deserted it for archaeology, which he
studied at Paris. He was, under Cousin s
influence, appointed professor of philosophy
in a French provincial college, and he often
contributed to the French magazines. He
was a friend of Thiers and Vacherot. At
the coup d etat of 1851 he left France, and
spent some years writing and lecturing in
England. He returned to Italy in I860,
and was appointed professor at the Milan
Academy. In 1862 he received the chair
of philosophy at Naples University. Vera
was throughout in sympathy with the
anti-Papal movement, but in philosophy
he was a follower of Hegel. He was the
leading Hegelian in Italy, and translated
into Italian and French several of Hegel s
works ; while Hegel translated some of
Vera s writings into German. His Inquiry
into Speculative and Experimental Science
(1856) was written in English. His views
are best found in his Philosophic de la
nature (3 vols., 1863-65), but he wrote
a large number of other philosophical
works, and is esteemed one of the most
eminent Italian philosophers of the century.
D. July 13, 1885.
YERDI, Giuseppe, Italian composer. B. Oct. 9, 1813. Verdi began at the age of seven to receive lessons in music from the village organist. Three years later he was sent to Busseto Academy. In 1825 he was apprenticed to the President of the Busseto Philharmonic Society, and he himself became President at the age of fifteen. After a period of study at the Milan Conservatorio, he returned to Busseto as conductor for the Philharmonic Society. In 1836 he returned to Milan, where his first opera, Oberto, was produced with success in 1839. In 1843 appeared his Lombardi, and he was generally recognized as one of the greatest Italian composers. Bigoletto was produced in 1851, II Trovatore and Traviata in 1852, and Les Vepres Siciliennes in 1855. Verdi was now widely regarded as " the greatest Italian composer
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