BAYLE
BEBEL
Agnostic. See also his Outspoken Essays
(1897) and recent Reminiscences and Re
flexions (1918).
BAYLE, Pierre, French philosopher and critic. B. Nov. 18, 1647. Ed. Puy- Laurens and Toulouse. In the Jesuit college at Toulouse he (1669) embraced Catholicism, but he was re-called to Protestantism by his father, a Protestant minister. He continued his study of philosophy at Geneva, and in 1675 he was appointed professor of philosophy in a Protestant school at Sedan. At its sup pression (1681) he went to Rotterdam and taught there. His salary and license to teach were withdrawn by the Dutch in 1693, as he advocated universal toleration, even of Atheists. He then devoted himself to compiling his Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, which was published at Rotterdam in 1692. An English translation appeared in 1736. There are no articles on " God," " Christ," or " Immortality," and Bayle s opinions are not fully known, but may be inferred. The caustic and elaborately polite thrusts at both Catholic and Protes tant doctrines, the vindication of Greek and Roman thought, and the firm advocacy of toleration and of the independence of ethics, gave the Dictionary, of which very numerous editions and translations appeared, a very large share in the spread of Rationalism. In view of certain articles, written in the light mood of the age, it should be stated that Bayle was a man of very sober and dignified life. Various small works had preceded the Dictionary, and he wrote a further series in defence of it. D. Dec. 28, 1706.
BEADNELL, Charles Marsh, M.R.C.S., L.R. C. P. ,L.S. A., naval surgeon. B. (India) Feb. 17, 1872. Ed. Cheltenham College and Guy s Hospital. Mr. Beadnell entered the Royal Navy as a surgeon in 1896. He served in the American Filipino War in 1899, and the Boer War (1899-1900). In the latter war he was thrice mentioned in dispatches for gallantry in the field, and
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was specially promoted eight years
seniority. During the European War he
served in H.M.S. Shannon, of the Grand
Fleet. He has written a number of papers
and works on medical and naval subjects,
expressing his Rationalist views particularly
in A Ilylozoistic View of Mind and Matter
(1915). He believes that " the only mental
attitude consistent with intellectual nor
mality and honesty is one of Agnosticism."
"BEAUCHAMP, Philip." See
BENTHAM, J., and GROTE, G.
BEAUSOBRE, Louis de, French writer. B. Aug. 22, 1730. Ed. Frankfort and Paris. Beausobre, though French, was born at Berlin, and adopted by Frederick the Great. He fully sustained the philo sophy of his adopted father. His Le Pyrrhonisms du Sage (1754) was con demned to the flames by the Paris Parlia ment. He is equally sceptical in his Songes d Epicure and other writings. D. Dec. 3, 1783.
BEBEL, Ferdinand August, German Socialist leader. B. Feb. 22, 1840. He was the son of a non-commissioned officer, a Prussian Pole, and was at an early age put to dairy-work. In 1864 he became a master-turner at Leipzig, and, under the influence of Liebknecht, took an active part in the Labour Movement. In 1869 he helped to found the Social Democratic Party, and in 1871 entered the Reichstag. He vigorously denounced the French War and the ambition of Prussia, and was in 1872 sentenced to two years and nine months in a fortress, during which period he improved his education. He served other terms of imprisonment, but (except in 1881-83) remained a fiery critic in the Reichstag until he died. He was zealously opposed to theology, as may be seen in his Christenthum und Sozialismus, Die Frau in der Vergangenheit, and Die Moham- medanisch-arabische Kulturperiode. D. Aug. 14, 1913.
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