Part 24

Pelletan (Pierre Clement Eugène), French writer, b. Saint-Palais-sur-Meir, 20 Oct. 1813. As a journalist he wrote in La Presse, under the name of "Un Inconnu," articles distinguished by their love of liberty and progress. He also contributed to the Revue des Deux Mondes. In '52 he published his Profession of Faith of the Nineteenth Century, and in '57 The Law of Progress and The Philosophical Kings. From '53-'55 he opposed Napoleon in the Siècle, and afterwards established La Tribune Française. In '63 he was elected deputy, but his election being annulled, he was re-elected in '64. He took distinguished rank among the democratic opposition. After the battle of Sedan he was made member of the Committee of National Defence, and in '76 of the Senate, of which he became vice-president in '79. In '78 he wrote a study on Frederick the Great entitled Un Roi Philosophe, and in '83 Is God Dead? Died at Paris, 14 Dec. 1884.

Pemberton (Charles Reece). English actor and author, b. Pontypool, S. Wales, 23 Jan. 1790. He travelled over most of the world and wrote The Autobiography of Pel Verjuice, which with other remains was published in 1843. Died 3 March, 1840.

Pennetier (Georges), Dr., b. Rouen, 1836, Director of the Museum of Natural History at Rouen. Author of a work on the Origin of Life, '68, in which he contends for spontaneous generation. To this work F. A. Pouchet contributed a preface.

Perfitt (Philip William), Theist, b. 1820, edited the Pathfinder, '59-61. Preached at South Place Chapel. Wrote Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, '61.

Periers (Bonaventure des). See Desperiers.

Perot (Jean Marie Albert), French banker, author of a work on Man and God, which has been translated into English, 1881, and Moral and Philosophical Allegories (Paris, 1883).

Perrier (Edmond), French zoologist, Curator at Museum of Natural History, Paris, b. Tulle, 1844. Author of numerous works on Natural History, and one on Transformisme, '88.

Perrin (Raymond S.), American author of a bulky work on The Religion of Philosophy, or the Unification of Knowledge: a comparison of the chief philosophical and religious systems of the world, 1885.

Perry (Thomas Ryley), one of Carlile's shopmen, sentenced 1824 to three years' imprisonment in Newgate for selling Palmer's Principles of Nature. He became a chemist at Leicester and in 1844 petitioned Parliament for the prisoners for blasphemy, Paterson and Roalfe, stating that his own imprisonment had not fulfilled the judge's hope of his recantation.

Petit (Claude), French poet, burnt on the Place de Grève in 1665 as the author of some impious pieces.

Petronius, called Arbiter (Titus), Roman Epicurean poet at the Court of Nero, in order to avoid whose resentment he opened his veins and bled to death in A.D. 66, conversing meanwhile with his friends on the gossip of the day. To him we owe the lines on superstition, beginning "Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor." Petronius is famous for his "pure Latinity." He is as plain-spoken as Juvenal, and with the same excuse, his romance being a satire on Nero and his court.

Petruccelli della Gattina (Ferdinando) Italian writer, b. Naples, 1816, has travelled much and written many works. He was deputy to the Naples Parliament in '48, and exiled after the reaction.

Petrus de Abano. A learned Italian physician, b. Abano 1250. He studied at Paris and became professor of medicine at Padua. He wrote many works and had a great reputation. He is said to have denied the existence of spirits, and to have ascribed all miracles to natural causes. Cited before the Inquisition in 1306 as a heretic, a magician and an Atheist, he ably defended himself and was acquitted. He was accused a second time but dying (1320) while the trial was preparing, he was condemned after death, his body disinterred and burnt, and he was also burnt in effigy in the public square of Padua.

Peypers (H. F. A.), Dutch writer, b. De Rijp, 2 Jan. 1856, studied medicine, and is now M.D. at Amsterdam. He is a man of erudition and good natured though satirical turn of mind. He has contributed much to De Dageraad, and is at present one of the five editors of that Freethought monthly.

Peyrard (François), French mathematician, b. Vial (Haute Loire) 1760. A warm partisan of the revolution, he was one of those who (7 Nov. 1793) incited Bishop Gobel to abjure his religion. An intimate friend of Sylvian Maréchal, Peyrard furnished him with notes for his Dictionnaire des Athées. He wrote a work on Nature and its Laws, 1793-4, and proposed the piercing of the Isthmus of Suez. He translated the works of Euclid and Archimedes. Died at Paris 3 Oct. 1822.

Peyrat (Alphonse), French writer, b. Toulouse, 21 June, 1812. He wrote in the National and la Presse, and combated against the Second Empire. In '65 he founded l'Avenir National, which was several times condemned. In Feb. '71, he was elected deputy of the Seine, and proposed the proclamation of the Republic. In '76 he was chosen senator. He wrote a History of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, '55; History and Religion, '58; Historical and Religious Studies, '58; and an able and scholarly Elementary and Critical History of Jesus, '64.

Peyrere (Isaac de la), French writer, b. Bordeaux, 1594, and brought up as a Protestant. He entered into the service of the house of Condé, and became intimate with La Mothe de Vayer and Gassendi. His work entitled Præadamitæ, 1653, in which he maintained that men lived before Adam, made a great sensation, and was burnt by the hangman at Paris. The bishop of Namur censured it, and la Peyrère was arrested at Brussels, 1656, by order of the Archbishop of Malines, but escaped by favor of the Prince of Condé on condition of retracting his book at Rome. The following epitaph was nevertheless made on him:

La Peyrere ici gît, ce bon Israelite, Hugenot, Catholique, enfin Pre-adamite: Quatre religions lui plurent à la fois: Et son indifférence était si peu commune Qu'après 80 ans qu'il eut à faire un choix Le bon homme partit, et n'en choisit pas une.

Died near Paris, 30 Jan. 1676.

Pfeiff (Johan Gustaf Viktor), Swedish baron, b. Upland, 1829. Editor of the free religious periodical, The Truthseeker, since 1882. He has also translated into Swedish some of the writings of Herbert Spencer.

Pharmacopulo (A.P.) Greek translator of Büchner's Force and Matter, and corresponding member of the International Federation of Freethinkers.

Phillips (Sir Richard), industrious English writer, b. London, 1767. He was hosier, bookseller, printer, publisher, republican, Sheriff of London (1807-8), and Knight. He compiled many schoolbooks, chiefly under pseudonyms, of which the most popular were the Rev. J. Goldsmith and Rev. D. Blair. His own opinions are seen most in his Million of Facts. Died at Brighton 2 April, 1840.

Phillippo (William Skinner), farmer, of Wood Norton, near Thetford, Norfolk. A deist who wrote an Essay on Political and Religious Meditations, 1868.

Pi-y Margall (Francisco), Spanish philosopher and Republican statesman, b. Barcelona, 1820. The first book he learnt to read was the Ruins of Volney. Studied law and became an advocate. He has written many political works, and translated Proudhon, for whom he has much admiration, into Spanish. He has also introduced the writings and philosophy of Comte into his own country. He was associated with Castelar and Figueras in the attempt to establish a Spanish Republic, being Minister of the Interior, and afterwards President in 1873.

Pichard (Prosper). French Positivist, author of Doctrine of Reality, "a catechism for the use of people who do not pay themselves with words," to which Littré wrote a preface, 1873.

Pierson (Allard). Dutch rationalist critic, b. Amsterdam 8 April, 1831. Educated in theology, he was minister to the Evangelical congregation at Leuven, afterwards at Rotterdam and finally professor at Heidelberg. He resigned his connection with the Church in '64. He has written many works of theological and literary value of which we mention his Poems '82, New Studies on Calvin, '83, and Verisimilia, written in conjunction with S. A. Naber, '86.

Pigault-Lebrun (Guillaume Charles Antoine), witty French author, b. Calais, 8 April, 1753. He studied under the Oratorians of Boulogne. He wrote numerous comedies and romances, and Le Citateur, 1803, a collection of objections to Christianity, borrowed in part from Voltaire, whose spirit he largely shared. In 1811 Napoleon threatened the priests he would issue this work wholesale. It was suppressed under the Restoration, but has been frequently reprinted. Pigault-Lebrun became secretary to King Jerome Napoleon, and died at La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 24 July, 1835.

Pike (J. W.) American lecturer, b. Concord (Ohio), 27 June, 1826, wrote My Religious Experience and What I found in the Bible, 1867.

Pillsbury (Parker), American reformer, b. Hamilton, Mass., 22 Sep. 1809. Was employed in farm work till '35, when he entered Gilmerton theological seminary. He graduated in '38, studied a year at Andover, was congregational minister for one year, and then, perceiving the churches were the bulwark of slavery, abandoned the ministry. He became an abolitionist lecturer, edited the Herald of Freedom, National Anti-Slavery Standard, and the Revolution. He also preached for free religious societies, wrote Pious Frauds, and contributed to the Boston Investigator and Freethinkers' Magazine. His principal work is Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles, 1883.

Piron (Alexis), French comic poet, b. Dijon, 9 July, 1689. His pieces were full of wit and gaiety, and many anecdotes are told of his profanity. Among his sallies was his reply to a reproof for being drunk on Good Friday, that failing must be excused on a day when even deity succumbed. Being blind in his old age he affected piety. Worried by his confessor about a Bible in the margin of which he had written parodies and epigrams as the best commentary, he threw the whole book in the fire. Asked on his death-bed if he believed in God he answered "Parbleu, I believe even in the Virgin." Died at Paris, 21 Jan. 1773.

Pisarev (Dmitri Ivanovich) Russian critic, journalist, and materialist, b. 1840. He first became known by his criticism on the Scholastics of the nineteenth century. Died Baden, near Riga, July 1868. His works are published in ten vols. Petersburg, 1870.

Pitt (William). Earl of Chatham, an illustrious English statesman and orator, b. Boconnoc, Cornwall, 15 Nov. 1708. The services to his country of "the Great Commoner," as he was called, are well known, but it is not so generally recognised that his Letter on Superstition, first printed in the London Journal in 1733, entitles him to be ranked with the Deists. He says that "the more superstitious people are, always the more vicious; and the more they believe, the less they practice." Atheism furnishes no man with arguments to be vicious; but superstition, or what the world made by religion, is the greatest possible encouragement to vice, by setting up something as religion, which shall atone and commute for the want of virtue. This remarkable letter ends with the words "Remember that the only true divinity is humanity."

Place (Francis), English Radical reformer and tailor; b. 1779 at Charing Cross. He early became a member of the London, Corresponding Society. He wrote to Carlile's Republican and Lion. A friend of T. Hardy, H. Tooke, James Mill, Bentham, Roebuck, Hetherington, and Hibbert (who puts him in his list of English Freethinkers). He was connected with all the advanced movements of his time and has left many manuscripts illustrating the politics of that period, which are now in the British Museum. He always professed to be an Atheist--see Reasoner, 26 March, '54. Died at Kensington, 1 Jan. 1854.

Platt (James), F.S.S., a woolen merchant and Deistic author of popular works on Business, '75; Morality, '78; Progress, '80; Life, '81; God and Mammon, etc.

Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus), the elder, Roman naturalist, b. Verona, A.D. 22. He distinguished himself in the army, was admitted into the college of Augurs, appointed procurator in Spain, and honored with the esteem of Vespasian and Titus. He wrote the history of his own time in 31 books, now lost, and a Natural History in 37 books, one of the most precious monuments of antiquity, in which his Epicurean Atheism appears. Being with the fleet at Misenum, 24 Aug. A.D. 79, he observed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and landing to assist the inhabitants was himself suffocated by the noxious vapors.

Plumacher (Olga), German pessimist, follower of Hartmann, and authoress of a work on Pessimism in the Past and Future, Heidelberg, 1884. She has also defended her views in Mind.

Plumer (William) American senator, b. Newburyport, Mass. 25 June, 1759. In 1780 he became a Baptist preacher, but resigned on account of scepticism. He remained a deist. He served in the Legislature eight terms, during two of which he was Speaker. He was governor of New Hampshire, 1812-18, wrote to the press over the signature "Cincinnatus," and published an Address to the Clergy, '14. He lived till 22 June, 1850.

Plutarch. Greek philosopher and historian, b. Cheronæa in Boetia, about A.D. 50. He visited Delphi and Rome, where he lived in the reign of Trajan. His Parallel Lives of forty-six Greeks and Romans have made him immortal. He wrote numerous other anecdotal and ethical works, including a treatise on Superstition. He condemned the vulgar notions of Deity, and remarked, in connection with the deeds popularly ascribed to the gods, that he would rather men said there was no Plutarch than traduce his character. In other words, superstition is more impious than Atheism. Died about A.D. 120.

Poe (Edgar Allan), American poet, grandson of General Poe, who figured in the war of independence, b. Boston, 19 Jan. 1809. His mother was an actress. Early left an orphan. After publishing Tamerlane and other Poems, '27, he enlisted in the United States Army, but was cashiered in '31. He then took to literary employment in Baltimore and wrote many stories, collected as the Tales of Mystery, Imagination, and Humor. In '45 appeared The Raven and other Poems, which proved him the most musical and dextrous of American poets. In '48 he published Eureka, a Prose Poem, which, though comparatively little known, he esteemed his greatest work. It indicates pantheistic views of the universe. His personal appearance was striking and one of his portraits is not unlike that of James Thomson. Died in Baltimore, 7 Oct. 1849.

Poey (Andrés), Cuban meteorologist and Positivist of French and Spanish descent, b. Havana, 1826. Wrote in the Modern Thinker, and is author of many scientific memoirs and a popular exposition of Positivism (Paris, 1876), in which he has a chapter on Darwinism and Comtism.

Pompery (Edouard), French publicist, b. Courcelles, 1812. A follower of Fourier, he has written on Blanquism and opportunism, '79, and a Life of Voltaire, '80.

Pomponazzi (Pietro) [Lat. Pomponatius], Italian philosopher, b. Mantua, of noble family, 16 Sept. 1462. He studied at Padua, where he graduated 1487 as laureate of medicine. Next year he was appointed professor of philosophy at Padua, teaching in concurrence with Achillini. He afterwards taught the doctrines of Aristotle at Ferrara and Bologna. His treatise De Immortalitate Animæ, 1516, gave great offence by denying the philosophical foundation of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The work was burnt by the hangman at Venice, and it is said Cardinal Bembo's intercession with Pope Leo X. only saved Pomponazzi from ecclesiastical procedure. Among his works is a treatise on Fate, Free Will, etc. Pomponazzi was a diminutive man, and was nicknamed "Peretto." He held that doubt was necessary for the development of knowledge, and left an unsullied reputation for upright conduct and sweet temper. Died at Bologna, 18 May, 1525, and was buried at Mantua, where a monument was erected to his memory.

Ponnat (de), Baron, French writer, b. about 1810. Educated by Jesuits, he became a thorough Freethinker and democrat and a friend of A. S. Morin, with whom he collaborated on the Rationaliste of Geneva. He wrote many notable articles in La Libre Pensée, Le Critique, and Le Candide, for writing in which last he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment. He published, under the anagram of De Pontan, The Cross or Death, a discourse to the bishops who assisted at the Ecumenical Council at Rome (Brussels, '62). His principal work is a history of the variations and contradictions of the Roman Church (Paris, '82). Died in 1884.

Porphyry, Greek philosoper of the New Platonic school, b. Sinia, 233 A.D. His original name was Malchus or Melech--a "King." He was a pupil of Longinus and perhaps of Origen. Some have supposed that he was of Jewish faith, and first embraced and then afterwards rejected Christianity. It is certain he was a man of learning and intelligence; the friend as well as the disciple of Plotinus. He wrote (in Greek) a famous work in fifteen books against the Christians, some fragments of which alone remain in the writings of his opponents. It is certain he showed acquaintance with the Jewish and Christian writings, exposed their contradictions, pointed out the dispute between Peter and Paul, and referred Daniel to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. He wrote many other works, among which are lives of Plotinus and Pythagorus. Died at Rome about 305.

Porzio (Simone), a disciple of Pomponazzi, to whom, when lecturing at Pisa, the students cried "What of the soul?" He frankly professed his belief that the human soul differed in no essential point from the soul of a lion or plant, and that those who thought otherwise were prompted by pity for our mean estate. These assertions are in his treatise De Mente Humanâ.

"Posos (Juan de)," an undiscovered author using this pen-name, expressed atheistic opinions in a book of imaginary travels, published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1708, and translated into German at Leipsic, 1721.

Post (Amy), American reformer, b. 1803. From '28 she was a leading advocate of slavery abolition, temperance, woman's suffrage and religious reform. Died Rochester, New York, 29 Jan. 1889.

Potter (Agathon Louis de). See De Potter (A. L.)

Potter (Louis Antoine Joseph de). See De Potter (L. A. J.)

Potvin (Charles), Belgian writer b. Mons. 2 Dec. 1818, is member of the Royal Academy of Letters, and professor of the history of literature at Brussels. He wrote anonymously Poesie et Amour '58, and Rome and the Family. Under the name of "Dom Jacobus" he has written an able work in two volumes on The Church and Morality, and also Tablets of a Freethinker. He was president of "La Libre Pensée" of Brussels from '78 to '83, is director of the Revue de Belgique and has collaborated on the National and other papers.

Pouchet (Felix Archimède), French naturalist, b. Rouen 26 Aug. 1800. Studied medicine under Dr. Flaubert, father of the author of Mme. Bovary, and became doctor in '27. He was made professor of natural history at the Museum of Rouen, and by his experiments enriched science with many discoveries. He defended spontaneous generation and wrote many monographs and books of which the principal is entitled The Universe, '65. Died at Rouen, 6 Dec. 1872.

Pouchet (Henri Charles George), French naturalist, son of the proceeding, b. Rouen, 1833, made M.D. in '64, and in '79 professor of comparative anatomy in the museum of Natural History at Paris. In '80 he was decorated with the Legion of Honor. He has written on The Plurality of the Human Race, '58, and collaborated on the Siècle, and the Revue des Deux Mondes and to la Philosophie Positive.

Pouchkine (A.), see Pushkin.

Pougens (Marie Charles Joseph de), French author, a natural son of the Prince de Conti, b. Paris, 15 Aug. 1755. About the age of 24 he was blinded by small pox. He became an intimate friend of the philosophers, and, sharing their views, embraced the revolution with ardor, though it ruined his fortunes. He wrote Philosophical Researches, 1786, edited the posthumous works of D'Alembert, 1799, and worked at a dictionary of the French language. His Jocko, a tale of a monkey, exhibits his keen sympathy with animal intelligence, and in his Philosophical Letters, 1826, he gives anecdotes of Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, Pechmeja, Franklin, etc. Died at Vauxbuin, near Soissons, 19 Dec. 1833.

Poulin (Paul), Belgian follower of Baron Colins and author of What is God? What is Man? a scientific solution of the religious problem (Brussels, 1865), and re-issued as God According to Science, '75, in which he maintains that man and God exclude each other, and that the only divinity is moral harmony.

Poultier D'Elmolte (François Martin), b. Montreuil-sur-Mer, 31 Oct. 1753. Became a Benedictine monk, but cast aside his frock at the Revolution, married, and became chief of a battalion of volunteers. Elected to the Convention he voted for the death of the King. He conducted the journal, L'Ami des lois, and became one of the Council of Ancients. Exiled in 1816, he died at Tournay in Belgium, 16 Feb. 1827. He wrote Morceaux Philosophiques in the Journal Encyclopédique; Victoire, or the Confessions of a Benedictine; Discours Décadaires, for the use of Theophilantropists, and Conjectures on the Nature and Origin of Things, Tournay, 1821.

Powell (B. F.), compiler of the Bible of Reason, or Scriptures of Ancient Moralists; published by Hetherington in 1837.

Prades (Jean Martin de), French theologian b. Castel-Sarrasin, about 1720. Brought up for the church, he nevertheless became intimate with Diderot and contributed the article Certitude to the Encyclopédie. On the 18th Nov. 1751 he presented to the Sorbonne a thesis for the doctorate, remarkable as the first open attack on Christianity by a French theologian. He maintained many propositions on the soul, the origin of society, the laws of Moses, miracles, etc., contrary to the dogmas of the Church, and compared the cures recorded in the Gospels to those attributed to Esculapius. The thesis made a great scandal. His opinions were condemned by Pope Benedict XIV., and he fled to Holland for safety. Recommended to Frederick the Great by d'Alembert he was received with favor at Berlin, and became reader to that monarch, who wrote a very anti-Christian preface to de Prades' work on ecclesiastical history, published as Abrége de l'Histoire ecclesiastique de Fleury, Berne (Berlin) 1766. He retired to a benefice at Glogau (Silesia), given him by Frederick, and died there in 1782.

Prater (Horatio), a gentleman of some fortune who devoted himself to the propagation of Freethought ideas. Born early in the century, he wrote on the Physiology of the Blood, 1832. He published Letters to the American People, and Literary Essays, '56. Died 20 July, 1885. He left the bulk of his money to benevolent objects, and ordered a deep wound to be made in his arm to insure that he was dead.

Preda (Pietro), Italian writer of Milan, author of a work on Revelation and Reason, published at Geneva, 1865, under the pseudonym of "Padre Pietro."

Premontval (Andre Pierre Le Guay de), French writer, b. Charenton, 16 Feb. 1716. At nineteen years of age, while in the college of Plessis Sorbonne, he composed a work against the dogma of the Eucharist. He studied mathematics and became member of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. He wrote Le Diogene de D'Alembert, or Freethoughts on Man, 1754, Panangiana Panurgica, or the false Evangelist, and Vues Philosophiques, Amst., 2 vols., 1757. He also wrote De la Théologie de L'Etre, in which he denies many of the ordinary proofs of the existence of a God. Died Berlin, 1767.