Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/248

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ROGERS. 224 BOGIER. Seminary. His chief pulilications are: Two Texts of Esarhaddon (1889); Inscriptions of Sennachcrih (1893) ; Outlines of the History of Early Bahijlonia (1895) ; and History of Baby- lonia and Assyria (1900). ROGERS, Samuel (1703-1855). An English poet, born at Stolce Xewington, near London. His taste for literature and the company of literary men awoke at an early period, when he familiar- ized himself with Johnson, Goldsmith, and Gray. In 1786 he published his first book, entitled An Ode to Superstition, and Some Other Poems, fol- lowed in 1792 by Pleasures of Memory — the work on which his fame most securely rests. In 1803 lie retired from active business on an income of ioOOO a year, and built and adorned a house in Saint James's Place overlooking the Green Park, where he entertained many of the literary men of the time. His breakfasts became famous. After settling here, he published Columhus (1810; privately, 1808), a theme too large for him. In 1814 Jacqueline appeared in the same volume with Byron's Lara. In 1819 he issued Human Life, one of his best poems; and, in 1822, Italy. To this last poem a second part was added (1828). After this date Rogers wrote little, his time being mainl.y devoted to dining, epigram, and anecdote. In 1850 the laureateship was offered to him, but declined. He died December 18, 1855, Ko name occurs oftener than his in the literar}- annals of the time. Possessed of a large fortune, he be- friended his poorer brethren; he obtained a pen- sion for Car}' and a position for Wordsworth, and healed the quarrel between Moore and B3'ron. The high place given him as a poet by his contempo- raries he has not been able to maintain. Consult: Dyce, Recollections of the Table-Talk of Rogers (London, 1860) ; Clayden, The Early Life of Rogers (Boston, 1888) ; id., Rogers and His Con- temjjoraries (London, 1889). ROGERS, William Augustus (1832-98). An American astronomer and phj-sicist, born in "aterford. Conn. He giaduated at Brown Uni- versity in 1857, immediately became instructor, and in 1859 professor of mathematics at Alfred University, where, from 1866 to 1870, he was head of the department of industrial mechanics, and then became assistant in the Harvard Ob- servatcn'y. There he mapped a part of the skies north of the zenith and contributed to the Annals of the observatory. In 1880 he became professor of physics and chemistry at Colby University. Rogers's most important work was in metrology, and included the construction of a dividing en- gine of high precision, and standards of length, which were compared with the British and Inter- national prototypes, as well as with the United States standards, ROGERS, William B.vrton (1804-82). An American scientist and educator, first president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in Philadelphia, a son of Patrick Kerr Rogers (1776-1828), then tutor in the LTniversity of Pennsylvania, and from 1819 to his death professor in William and !Mary College, where his son graduated in 1822 and in 1828 suc- ceeded him in the chair of natural philosophy and niatliematies. During the seven years that he held this post he began with his brother Henry a minute study of the geolosry of Virginia. From 1835 to 1853 as professor of natural philosophy in the Universitv of Virginia he extended this work and became head of the State Geological Survey; the Pajjcrs on the Geology of Virginia (1884) give the results of this period, in which he was assisted by his three brothers, Robert Empie Rogers having become professor of chemistry ami materia medica at the university, in 1842, and Heniy Rogers being State geologi-st of Penn- .sylvania. As a geologist his work was remark- able for its conscientious foundation on observed facts. Rogers removed to Boston in 1853 ; as inspector of gas and gas meters reformed the system of inspection (1861) ; and in 1859 began to urge the establishment of a technical school. For this institution he drew up a scheme in 1860, repeating the outline he had made in 1840, and in 1862 received a charter. In 1865, after a year in Europe to study apparatus, he saw tlie actual establishment of the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology (q.v. ) and was appointed its president and professor of physics and geology. He introduced laboratory instruction in physics, chemistry, mechanics, and mining. In 1878, after a forced retirement of several years, he returned to his work, and in the following year succeeded Joseph Henry in the presidencv of the Xational Academy of Sciences. From the presi- dency of the Institute of Technology he resigned in 1881; in the next year he fell dead on the ])latform while making an address to the gradu- ating class. Rogers wrote Strength of Materials (1838), and Elements of ileehnnical Philosophy (1852), as well as many papers for scientific associations. Consult his Life and Letters, edited bv his wife and William T. Sidg^vick (Boston, 1897). ROGET, rG'zha', Peter JLrk (1779-1869). An English physician and scholar, born in Lon- don. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and removed to Manchester, where he became physician to the lunatic asylum, the fever hospital, and the infirmary. He settled in London in 1808 and was long the secretary of the Royal Society. Among his works are Animal and Vegetable Physiology (1834), and a The- saurus of English Words and Phrases (1852), which passed through twenty-eight editions in the author's lifetime, and, as edited by his son in 1879, is still in use. BOGIER, r6'zhya', Charles (1800-85). A Belgian statesman, born at Saint-Quentin, France. He studied law at Li&ge and was admitted to the bar, devoting himself, however, with greater zeal to journalistic campaigns against the Dutch rule in Belgium. L'pon the outbreak of the insurrection at Brussels in August, 1830, Rogier raised a Ijand of 300 men and entered the capital, where he gained note as one of the most active among the patriot leaders. He became a member of the provisional Government estab- lished in October, and after the election of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as King, in June, 1831, was made Governor of Antwerp. He left this post in October, 1832, to assume the portfolio of the Interior in the Goblet-Devaux Cabinet, and signalized his term of olfice by bringing into ex- istence the Belgian railway system. He left the Cabinet in 1834 for his old position of Governor of Antwerp, but reentered the Afinistry in 1840 as head of the Department of Public Works and Education. The Ministry fell in 1841 and Rogier was the leader of the Liberal Opposition in the Chamber of Deputies till 1847, when he was called upon to form a Ministry, in which he held