WAKEMAN
WALFEEDIN
College. In 1778 he was ordained deacon,
and he served as curate for a few months
at Stockport and Liverpool. He made,
however, a serious study of theology, and
renounced the Church. He became a tutor,
and for years supported himself by teaching.
In 1790 he was for a short time classical
professor at Hackney seminary ; but he
could not subscribe to the creed, and
resigned. Wakefield was a most industrious
and learned student. He translated Vergil s
Georqics and the tragedies of Euripides and
Sophocles, and wrote a large number of
literary works. The chief of these are his
Silva Critica (1794) and Lucretius (3 vols.,
1796-99 a fine and sympathetic study).
Although he wrote a work against Paine
and called himself a Christian, contem
porary biographers (quoted in Chalmers s
Biographical Dictionary) say that his views
were "extremely different from those of
every body of Christians." He was violently
assailed at the time by religious writers,
and in 1798 he got two years in prison
for a criticism of the Bishop of Llandaff.
He was not a Unitarian, as he is often
described, but a Theist. He rejected the
whole idea of public worship and avoided
church. Wakefield had, at the same time,
strong humanitarian sentiments ; and it is
said of him in the Dictionary of National
Biography that he " holds a distinct posi
tion in the history of English scholarship "
D. Sep. 9, 1801.
WAKEMAN, Thaddeus Burr, American lawyer and writer. B. Dec. 29, 1834. Ed. Princeton University. Wakeman, who had a hard struggle to get the funds for his education, intended to join the Church ; but he became a Eationalist and turned to law. He was admitted to the American Bar in 1856. He practised in New York with great success, and took an active part in the Eationalist and other humanitarian movements. He was for three years Presi dent of the National Liberal League, and was in 1897 President of the New York State Freethinkers Association. For many years he edited Man, and he wrote a 801
number of small nationalist and Positivist
works (An Epitome of Positive Philosophy
and Eeligion, The Religion of Humanity,
Evolution or Creation, etc.). He translated
much of Goethe s work, and was until
1904 President of the Liberal University
of Kansas City. His Positivism was not
of the strict Comtist character. He greatly
admired Haeckel, and organized American
tributes to him. Wakeman was, in fact,
an aggressive Eationalist of constructive
and very high ideals. D. Apr. 23, 1913.
WALCKENAER, Baron Charles Athanase, French writer. B. Dec. 25, 1771. During the Eevolution Walckenaer emigrated to Scotland. He returned to France in 1816, and was one of the Mayors of Paris. In 1817 he was appointed general secretary of the Prefecture of the Seine, and in 1826 Prefect of Nievre. In 1840 he became secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions. He wrote several novels, Lives of Lafontaine (1820) and Mme. de Sevigne (5 vols., 1842-52), and a valuable Histoire de la vie et des poesies d Horace (2 vols., 1840). He was a man of extra ordinary knowledge and versatility. In 1815 he had published a scientific Cosmo- logie, and he compiled a Histoire Generale des Voyages (21 vols., 1826-31). The Baron did not abandon the Voltaireanism of pre- Eevolution days, like so many other nobles who returned in 1816. D. Apr. 28, 1852.
WALFERDIN, Francois Hippolyte,
French physicist. B. June 8, 1795. In his early years Walferdin was in the Excise Department. -He resigned in 1848, and was elected to the Constituent Assembly, where he advocated Republicanism. His political career was soon checked, and he devoted himself to science, in association with Arago, who greatly esteemed him. He invented a number of new instruments a new thermometer, the hypsothermo- meter, the hydrobarometer, etc. and edited the works of Diderot, whom he followed. He worked also in geology and meterology. D. Jan. 25, 1880.
862
