Ackermann, Louise Victorine, French writer. B. Nov. 30, 1813. During a visit to Berlin she married a German pastor, Paul Ackermann, who became a Rationalist. He died two years after wards, and Mme. Ackermann settled at Nice. Her stories and poems (Contes, 1855; Contes et Poesies, 1863) won for her a high position in French letters. In her later years she lived at Paris, and her house was the centre for a brilliant group of writers (Caro, Aulard, Coppée, Sully Prudhomme, etc.). She was the most decidedly Agnostic of them all. Religions, she said, "impose antiquated and narrow beliefs which are entirely unsuitable for a being who knows nothing and can affirm nothing" (Pensées d'une solitaire, 1903 ed., p. 11 a fine study of her life is prefixed to this edition). On her tomb was inscribed her Agnostic verse:
J'ignore! Un mot le seul par lequel je réponds
Aux questions sans fin de mon esprit déçu.
D. Aug. 2, 1890.
Acollas, Professor Émile Pierre Antoine René Paul, French jurist. B. June 25, 1826. At Paris, in his youth, he formed a society for the discussion of politics and religion, and was expelled for his advanced views by the reactionary authorities. He was appointed professor of law at Berne. In 1871 the Communal Government at Paris made him Dean of the Faculty of Law; but he declined. Returning to France some years later, he was appointed Inspector-General of Prisons and admitted to the Legion of Honour. Professor Acollas edited La Science Politique and wrote La loi générale de l'évolution humaine and various legal works. D. Oct. 17, 1891.
Acosta, Uriel, Jewish writer. B. 1591. Ed. Oporto. Acosta s family had, under pressure, embraced Christianity, and Uriel became Treasurer of an ecclesiastical college. Familiarity with the life and teaching of the Church drove him back to Jewish monotheism, and he fled to Holland. The continuance of his studies led him on to Deism, and he was so bitterly persecuted by both Jews and Christians that he took his life. His experience of orthodox charity is pathetically recorded in his autobiography, Exemplar Humana Vitæ D. Apr., 1647.
Adam, Professor Charles, D. es L., French philosopher. B. Dec. 14, 1857. Ed. Sedan, St. Omer, Douai, and Paris. He occupied the chair of philosophy at, in succession, Toulon (1880-81), Bar-le-Duc (1881-82), Clermont-Ferrand (1882-83), Nancy (1883-85), and Dijon (1885-97)! Since 1902 Professor Adam has been Rector of the Nancy Academy and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He has edited the works of Descartes, and has written several notable volumes on philosophy. In his valuable history of French philosophy (La philosophie en France, 1894) he says: "Philosophy and politics leave theses to theology, which digs them up from a remote past, and are modestly content with hypotheses " (p. 437).
Adams, Charles Francis, American historian, great-grandson of President J. Adams. B. May 27, 1835. Ed. Harvard University. He was admitted to the American bar in 1858, but the Civil War drew him into the army. In 1865 he became brigadier-general and retired from the service. From 1884 to 1890 he was President of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and for two years (1893-95) Chairman of the Massachusetts Park Commission. After 1894 Mr. Adams devoted himself particularly to American history. He was President of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1895, and of the American Historical Association in 1901. In 1913 he lectured on American history at Oxford University. In a warm tribute to Sir Leslie Stephen, with whose ideal of character and culture he was in the closest sympathy, he says that, after reading An Agnostic's Apology in 1892, he chose Stephen as his "philosopher and
