BEEITENBACH
BKIDGES
(p. 88). He married a sister of Hennell
(SEE), and for some time George Eliot
lived with them. Bray describes his
religious development in his Phases of
Opinion and Experience (1884). D. Oct. 5,
1884.
BREITENBACH, Wilhelm, Ph.D., Ger man writer and publisher. B. Dec. 21, 1857. Ed. Eealschule Lippstadt, and Jena and Marburg Universities. At first a private teacher at Bonn and Godesberg, he in 1888 took up publishing and writing. He is one of the leading supporters of Professor Haeckel, especially in his periodi cal, Die Nene Weltanschauung, and is President of the Humboldt Association for Scientific Philosophy and editor of the Humboldt Library.
BRENTANO, Professor Franz, German philosopher. B. Jan. 16, 1838 (nephew of Clemens Brentano and Bettina von Arnim). Ed. Berlin and Munich Universities. Ordained Catholic priest in 1864, he became a private teacher at Wiirzburg in 1866, and professor there in 1873. He resigned his position on account of the declaration that the Pope was infallible, and a few years later he left the Church. From 1874 to 1895 he held the chair of philosophy at Vienna University. In his philosophy he in the main follows Lotze, and adopts an eclectic spiritualist system.
BREWER, Ebenezer Cobham, LL.D.,
D.C.L., writer. B. May 2, 1810. Ed. private tutors and Cambridge (Trinity Hall). Brewer was ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1836, but he quitted the ministry for law, in which he graduated in 1840, and then devoted himself to letters. He wrote under the pseudonym of "Julian." The chief of his many works is A Dictionary of Miracles, Imitative, Realistic, and Dogmatic (1884). The preface, which disclaims the idea of attacking miracles, is merely a discreet preparation of the reader for a rejection of the Christian claims. He remarks of 109
the miracles of the early Church that " the
supply met the demand," and he severely
censures the Church for permitting the
legends. The Biblical miracles he under
mines by giving pagan and other legendary
parallels. In his later years he took a
warm interest in the spread of Eationalism.
D. Mar. 6, 1897.
BREWSTER, Henry, writer. B. 1851. Ed. France. Brewster, who had been born in France of an American father, lived most of his life in France and Italy, and was one of the very few English authors who could write in perfect French. He was a great friend of E. Eod, and lived in a cosmopolitan circle of artists and writers. In his most characteristic work, L dme paienne (1902), a manual of very advanced ethical " paganism," he disdains all religion. He wrote also on philosophy, and published a number of dramas and poems. D. June 13, 1908.
BRIAND, Aristide, D. es L., French statesman. B. Mar. 28, 1862. Ed. Lycee de Nantes. He graduated in law and practised for some years at the French bar. Entering the Chambre, he became Minister of Public Instruction and Cults in 1906, President of the Council in 1909, Minister of Justice and Cults in 1914, and Premier in 1915. Briand was entrusted, at the time of the separation of Church and State, with the report on their rela tions, and his masterly study was made the basis of the law. During the long debates in the Chambre he was one of the most powerful and eloquent opponents of the clericals. His speeches have been published in several volumes. He is an extreme Eationalist, a man of high social and personal ideals, and one of the ablest and most respected of French statesmen.
BRIDGES, Horace James, American lecturer. B. (London) Aug. 31, 1880. From 1905 to 1912 Mr. Bridges was asso ciated with Dr. Stanton Coit in the West London Ethical Society. In 1913 he 110
