SEEGI
SEVERN
adopted the ideas of Rousseau. He returned
to Paris in 1800 and devoted himself to
literature. He had already published
Reveries sur la nature primitive de I homme
(2 vols., 1798-99), but he is chiefly known
by his autobiographical Obermann (2 vols.,
1804). It was little regarded at the time;
but later generations have found fine
qualities in its hypersensitive pages. He
wrote also De I amour (2 vols., 1805 and
1834). Brinton describes Senancour as
" not at all religious" ; but it is more correct
to say that, lika Rousseau, he was a Theist.
D. Jan. 10, 1846.
SERGI, Professor Giuseppe, Italian anthropologist. B. Mar. 21, 1841. Ed. Messina University. He was appointed instructor at Messina University, and later at Milan. In 1880 he became professor of anthropology at Bologna University, and since 1884 he has been professor of anthro pology and experimental psychology at Rome University and Director of the Roman Anthropological Museum. He has written about a hundred books and pam phlets, and more than two hundred papers in technical periodicals. His earlier works were psychological; but since the beginning of this century he has been mainly occu pied with questions about early man, and is the most learned anthropologist in the south of Europe. His Specie e varietd umane (1900), The Mediterranean Bace (Eng. trans., 1901), Le origini umane (1913), etc., are well known to students. Professor Sergi, who is loaded with scientific honours, is not only one of the first scholars of Italy, but " the grand old man " of Italian Rationalism. Thorough, and thoroughly outspoken, he has done immense service in enlightening his country. He took a prominent part in the Freethinkers Con gress at Rome in 1904, and in the course of his fiery speech said that " the concep tions of a soul, of a future life, of a God, are all superstitious errors which have clouded the human mind and given a false direction to human conduct " (Wilson s Trip to Rome, p. 170).
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SEUME, Johann Gottfried, German
writer. B. Jan. 29, 1763. Ed. Borna, and
Leipzig University. Seume s father died
early, and he was adopted by Count von
Hohenthal-Knauthain. He began to study
for the Church at Leipzig ; but the reading
of Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke made a
Rationalist of him, and he gave up theo
logy and set out for Paris. He was press-
ganged on the way, and forced to enter
the German regiment which was then in
the pay of England. With this he passed
some time in America. In 1783 he
returned to Europe, and deserted. During
the following years he was generally tutor
and secretary, and in 1801 he made a
famous journey on foot from Germany to
Sicily (described in his Spatziergang nach
Syrakus, 1803). He wrote poetry, drama,
an autobiography (Mein Leben, 1813), and
other works, of which there is a collected
edition in eight volumes (1835). There is
a monument erected to Seume in Teplitz.
He was a Deist, and his works contain
many a hard hit at orthodox Christianity,
such as : " Grotius and the Bible are the
best supports of despotism." D. June 13,
1810.
SEVERN, Joseph, painter. B. Dec. 7, 1793. He was apprenticed to an engraver, but he devoted himself so assiduously in private to art that in 1818 he won the gold medal of the Royal Academy for the best painting by a student. He had made the acquaintance of Keats and Leigh Hunt in 1816 ; and in 1820 he, with great self- sacrifice, accompanied Keats to Italy and devoted himself to the dying poet during his last few months. In 1821 he won a, travelling pension from the Academy. He remained in Italy until 1841, and developed considerable skill in his art. From 1841 to 1860 he worked in England, and from 1860 to 1872 he held the high position of British Consul at Rome. Sharing the Rationalism of Keats, he was no mere passive spectator of the struggle with the Papacy, and more than one of the perse cuted Italians had his aid. He continued
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