COMBES
COMBES, Justin Louis Emile, M.D., D. es L., Prime Minister of France. B. Sep. 6, 1835. He studied for the priest hood, but he abandoned the Church before ordination. He graduated in letters in 1860, and in medicine in 1867. From the practice of medicine he turned to politics, and in 1885 he entered the Senate. He was Vice-President of the Senate 1893-94, Minister of Public Instruction 1895-96, Minister of the Interior and President of the Council 1902-1905. It was during the Premiership of Combes, who is by no means a violent Eationalist, that the separation of Church and State was com pleted in France. He is an Agnostic, but his mildness and consideration for the Church greatly angered many French Eationalists, while Catholics all over the world represented him as a rabid icono clast.
COMMON, Thomas, writer. In 1896 Common began the publication of Nietzsche s works in English, and became one of the leading English authorities on the German philosopher. He published Nietzsche as Critic in 1901, and has edited (and partly translated) the Complete Works of F. Nietzsche, 1909. In his Scientific Chris tianity (1904) he rejects all religion.
COMPARETTI, Professor Domenico,
D.C.L. (Oxon), Sc.D., Italian philologist. B. 1835. Ed. Eome. He entered his father s business, but devoted himself to a serious study of classical Iliterature, and in 1859 became professor of Greek at Pisa University. He migrated to Florence, and later to Eome University. Professor Comparetti is a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy ; a Member of the Higher Council of Public Instruction and the Eoyal Academy of the Lincei; corresponding member of the Institutes of Milan and Venice, the Academy of Sciences of Naples, Turin, Florence, and Munich, the Eoyal Society of Texts, and the French Academy of Inscriptions. He is a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He has written 175
COMTE
many literary and philological works, and is co-editor of La Eivista di Filologia.
COMPAYRE, Jules Gabriel, French educationist. B. Jan. 2, 1843. Ed. Lycee de Toulouse, Lycee Louis le Grand, and Ecole Normale Superieure. He taught philosophy, in succession, at Pau, Poitiers, and Toulouse, and in 1881 became pro fessor of the history of education at Fon- tenay. From 1881 to 1889 he sat in the Chambre, and in 1886 was admitted to the Higher Council of Public Instruction. He became Eector of Poitiers Academy in 1890, of Lyons Academy in 1895, and Inspector-General of Public Instruction in 1905. Professor Compayre, a Commander of the Legion of Honour and member of the Institut, was one of the leading French educationists and a thorough Eationalist. " We rely no longer," he says, on the religious sentiment, on belief in the super natural. We appeal solely to reason and nature" (L education intellectuelle et morale, 1908, p. 431). D. Mar. 23, 1913.
COMTE, Frangois Charles Louis,
French writer, brother of Auguste Comte. B. Aug. 25, 1782. He went to Paris in 1806 and adopted the legal profession. In 1814 he founded Le Censeur, and incurred fines and imprisonment for his attacks on reaction. He retired to Switzerland in 1821, and occupied the chair of natural law at Lausanne. Eeturning to France after 1830, he was appointed Eoyal Pro curator, but he was deposed soon after wards for his independence. He entered the Chambre, and the Academy, in 1831, and proved a strong opponent of the Clericals. His chief work, Traite de legis lation (4 vols., 1827-35), obtained the Academy s Monthyon Prize. D. Apr. 13, 1837.
COMTE, Isidore Marie Auguste Fran cois Xavier, the founder of Positivism. B. Jan. 19, 1798. Ed. Montpellier Poly technic. He went to Paris in 1816, and adopted Saint- Simonian ideas. Abandon- 176
