Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/64

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BAUDISSIN


BAX


strengthened, and he completely rejected religious traditions. In 1856 he translated E. A. Foe s Tales, and in 1857 appeared his famous Les Fleurs du Mai, a collection of 151 of his short poems, in which, a critic said, "he cultivated his hysteria with delight and terror." The work was pro secuted, and a few of the poems had to he suppressed. He worked slowly to attain the hectic beauty of his lines, and the use of nerve-stimulants ruined his mental health. C. Asselineau and E. Crepet (1906) have written the best studies of him in French. A. Symons and others have translated much of his work. D. Aug. 31, 1867.

BAUDISSIN, Wilhelm Friedrich, Count Yon, Ph.D., German theological writer. B. Sep. 26, 1847. Ed. (in theology) Erlangen, Berlin, Leipzig, and Kiel Universities. He was appointed teacher of theology at Leipzig in 1874, and he was afterwards professor of theology at Strassburg (1876-81) and Marburg (1881-86). He was Eector of Marburg University 1892-94, and in 1900 he became professor of theology at Berlin. In 1912-13 he was Eector of Berlin University. Bau- dissin has written several important Biblical works, and in his Adonis und Esmun (1911) he discusses with great frankness the sources of the resurrection-myth, and of the characteristics of Jehovah and of Christ, in Syrian mythology. He clearly rejects the characteristic Christian doc trines.

BAUDRILLART, Professor Henri,

French economist. B. Nov. 28, 1821. Ed. Coll6ge Bourbon, Paris. After a brilliant scholastic career Baudrillart became in 1855 editor of the Journal des Economistes. In 1863 he was elected to the Academy. Three years later he was appointed professor at the College de France, and in 1881 at the Ecole les Ponts et des Chaussees. Besides important works on economics he published an eloquent panegyric of Voltaire (Discours sur Voltaire, 1844). D. Jan. 24, 1892.


BAUER, Bruno, German Biblical critic. B. Sept. 6, 1809. Ed. Berlin University, where, in 1834, he was appointed a private teacherof theology. In 1839 he became pro fessor at Bonn, but he w r as deprived of his chair in 1842 on account of his Eationalistic conclusions. He settled at Berlin and founded the Allgemeine Litteraturzeitung . In his numerous historical and Scriptural works Bauer rejects all supernatural religion, and represents Christianity as a natural product of the mingling of the Stoic and Alexandrian philosophies. D.Apr. 13, 1882.

BAUER, Edgar, German Biblical critic, brother of Bruno Bauer. B. Oct. 7, 1820. Ed. Berlin (theology and law). He shared his brother s views and actively engaged in the defence of them. His pamphlet Bruno Bauer und seine Gegner (1842) was seized by the authorities, and in the following year he was sentenced to imprisonment. In 1843-44 he, in conjunction with Bruno, issued in twelve parts the Denkivttrdigkeiten ziir Geschichte der ncucren zeit, and he wrote various historical works. He took part in the revolutionary movement of 1848-49, and was obliged to quit Germany. D. Aug. 18, 1886.

BAX, Ernest Belfort, philosophic and \ social writer. B. July 23, 1854. Ed. I privately in England and Germany, devoting himself particularly to music and philosophy. On his return to England Mr. Bax qualified as a barrister (Middle Temple), but adopted journalism (1880), and, with William Morris, founded the English Socialist League. He was for a time joint editor of the Commonwealth, and later of Justice. He translated Kant s Prolegomena (1883), and wrote The Roots of Reality (1907) and other philosophical works. In his Problems of Men, Mind, and Morals (1912) he remarks that "for those

who accept Socialism it is scarcely

possible to conscientiously describe them selves as Christians, or even Theists " (p. 140). He prefers the title Atheist to 56