MICHELET
MILL
profession of Agnosticism, and the work is
very severe on the Churches, though not
so severe as this later-written preface.
Michelet s second great work, Histoire de
la revolution frangaise (l vols., 1847-53),
is not less anti-clerical. The sound Eation-
alism of one of its greatest historians has
been an important factor in French develop
ment. All the more recent historians
(Duruy, Martin, Lavisse, Aulard, etc.) have
followed Michelet s lead, though none
approach him in vigour and picturesque-
ness of style. D. Feb. 9, 1874.
MICHELET, Professor Karl Ludwig,
Ph.D., German philosopher. B. Dec. 4, 1801. Ed. Berlin University. In 1829 he was appointed extraordinary professor at Berlin. Michelet was one of Hegel s most devoted followers, and he led the left wing in the schism which followed the master s death. He was equally advanced in Eationalism and politics. He translated Aristotle s Ethics (2 vols., 1829- 35), and his Examen Critique de I ouvrage d Aristote intitule Metaphysique (1835) was crowned by the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. His views more radical than those of Hegel are best read in his Vorlesungen ilber die Personlichkeit Gottes und die Unsterblichkeit der Seele (1841). D. Dec. 16, 1893.
MIDDLETON, Conyers, D.D., writer. B. Dec. 27, 1683. Ed. Cambridge (Trinity College). For a time he served as a curate near Cambridge, and he was then rector of Coveney for a few years. In 1721 he was appointed librarian of Trinity College, and from 1731-34 he was Woodwardian pro fessor. Middleton showed a certain measure of Rationalism in his Letter from Rome (1729), and was openly accused of " infidelity " when he published his Letter to Dr. Waterland (1738). In 1741 he issued his chief work, The History of the Life of M. Tullius Cicero (2 vols.), and in 1749 appeared his Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are supposed to have subsisted in the Christian Church from 505
the Earliest Ages (1749). He nowhere
avows his scepticism, but there is no
illusion about his views. He rejected all
supernatural claims, and was especially
drastic against the Eoman and Anglican
Churches. Evidence is given in the Diet.
Nat. Biog. that he concealed his Deistic
views in order to get preferment. D. July
28, 1750.
MILELLI, Domenico, Italian poet. B. Feb., 1841. He was educated for the Church, but he developed Eationalist views and became a teacher of Latin and Italian literature. His first poetry appeared in 1879 (In giovinezza] ; and his later Odi pagane (1879), Canzonieri (1884), etc., were emphatically " pagan," as he claimed.
MILL, James, philosopher. B. Apr. 6, 1773. Ed. private schools and Edinburgh University. Son of a country shoemaker, Mill entirely pleased the patrons who paid for his education by his brilliant progress at Edinburgh. He made a thorough study of Greek philosophy and of divinity, and was in 1798 licensed to preach. The Greek philosophers had unsettled his orthodoxy, and after giving a few sermons he preferred to be a tutor. In 1802 he went to London, where he edited the Literary Journal (1802-5) and the St. James s Chronicle (1805-8). In 1808 he became an intimate friend of Bentham, and surrendered the last elements of his religious belief and became an Agnostic. His son tells us that it was the reading of Butler s Analogy which destroyed his faith ; Professor Bain says that it was conver sation with General Miranda, of South America ; Mr. Benn emphasizes the in fluence of Greek philosophy; and others prefer the influence of Bentham. No doubt these influences successively in creased the scepticism which the Greeks had first engendered. Mill was a very versatile writer and severe thinker. His History of India (3 vols., 1817), Elements of Political Economy (1821), and Analysis of the Phenomena of the Hitman Mind (1829) 506
