Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/48

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ANTONELLE
ARAGO

Feminist movements. She had a large share in securing for American women the possession of their earnings and the guardianship of their children, and few names are more honoured than hers is among the advanced women of America. She was, like so many of the women pioneers, an Agnostic, and in the History of Woman Suffrage (3 vols., 1881-87), which she and Mrs. Gage wrote, the Churches are not spared. See The Life and Work of S. B. Anthony (2 vols., 1898–99), by Ida H. Harper. D. Mar. 13, 1906.

Antonelle, Pierre Antoine, Marquis d', French political economist. B. 1747. He was an officer in the army who embraced the ideas of the philosophers and wrote a Catechisme du Tiers-État (1789). During the Revolution he contributed to the Journal des Homines Libres, but he was banished from Paris for his complicity in Babeuf's plot. The remainder of his life was devoted to the tranquil study of philosophy, and at his death the clergy declined to give him the Christian burial which his relatives desired. D. Nov. 26, 1817.

Apelt, Professor Ernst Friedrich, German philosopher. B. Mar. 3, 1812. Ed. Jena and Leipzig Universities. From 1831 to 1839 he was absorbed in the private study of mathematics and philosophy, and in the latter year he began to teach philosophy at Jena University. He became extraordinary professor in 1840, and ordinary professor in 1845. His Epochen der Geschichte der Menschheit (2 vols., 1845-46), Religionsphilosophie (1860), etc., gave him a high reputation, and after the death of Fries he was regarded as the leader of the "Æsthetic Rationalist School" which on the religious side means a very liberal Theism. D. Oct. 27, 1859.

Arago, Dominique François Jean, French physicist. B. Feb. 26, 1786. Ed. École Polytechnique, Paris. Arago, reared in the finest spirit of the Revolution, joined the staff of the Observatory, and in 1806 he was appointed to take part in the important work of measuring an arc of the terrestrial meridian as a basis of the metrical system. For his brilliant work he was, by a suspension of the age limit, admitted to the Academy at the early age of twenty-three, and he was appointed professor at the Polytechnic and Director of the Observatory. His papers, which fill seventeen volumes (1854-62), represent a remarkable series of services to science, especially in optics and electro-magnetism. He invented the polariscope and other instruments, and he was the first French man to receive the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. He belonged to most of the learned societies of Europe. Eminent as he was in science, Arago never relaxed in his humanitarian creed. He joined the Anti-Clericals in the French Parliament after the Revolution of 1830, and after the Revolution of 1848 he accepted the port folio of War and Marine. For his thorough Rationalistic sentiments one must read his letters to Alexander von Humboldt, a kindred spirit (Correspondance d'Alexandre de Humboldt avec F. Arago, 1907). D. Oct. 2, 1853.

Arago, Étienne Vincent, French dramatist, brother of preceding. B. Feb. 9, 1802. Etienne adopted literature as his profession, and co-operated with Balzac in some of his early works. From 1822 to 1847 he wrote plays for nearly all the Parisian theatres, and was extremely popular. A Republican and Rationalist like his brother, he took an active part in the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and for his share in the latter he was expelled from France. He returned in 1859, and he was one of the most ardent critics of the Government's policy of supporting the Pope. During the fourth Revolution he was again active, and was Mayor of Paris during the siege. D. Mar. 5, 1892.

Arago, François Victor Emmanuel,

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