TAINE
TALLEYRAND-PERIGORD
the Republican anti-clerical party, became
general secretary to the Minister of Educa
tion at the Revolution of 1870. He was
admitted to the Legion of Honour in 1870,
and to the Academy in 1873. He trans
lated into French the correspondence of
Goethe and Schiller (2 vols., 1863), and
wrote many works, especially on German
literature, which were important at the
time. His views are given in his Histoire
et philosophic rcligieuse (1860). D. Feb. 22,
1879.
TAINE, Professor Hippolyte Adolphe,
D. es L., French historian. B. Apr. 21, 1828. Ed. Rethel College, College Bourbon, and Ecole Normale. He was appointed professor of philosophy at Nevers, then of rhetoric at Poitiers. The advanced opinions which he had adopted made him obnoxious to the authorities after 1851, and he retired from teaching and devoted himself to letters and study. He graduated in 1853, his first thesis being rejected as too heterodox, and gave some time to travel. In 1863 he became examiner in history and German at the Military School of St. Cyr, and in the following year professor of the history of art and aesthetics at the School of Fine Arts. In 1871 Taine lectured at Oxford University on French literature ; and he was admitted to the Academy, from which the hostility of the Church had hitherto excluded him, in 1880. Taine s works (notably his Histoire de la litterature anglaise, 3 vols., 1863 ; De I intelligence, 2 vols., 1870 ; and Les origines de la France contemporaine, 3 vols., 1876-91) made him recognized throughout the world as one of the most eminent French writers of his generation. " He was, with Renan, and perhaps more than Renan, one of the intellectual guides of the generation formed between 1860 and 1890 " (Grande Encyclo pedic). Taine is so much quoted by reactionary writers that some are puzzled. It was, however, only on the political side that he abandoned his advanced opinions after 1870. He remained all his life an Agnostic (see Professor Boutmy s study of 779
his opinions in his Taine, Scherer, Labou-
laye, 1901). D. Mar. 5, 1893.
TALANDIER, Professor Alfred, French writer. B. Sep. 7, 1828. Talandier studied law, and was called to the Bar ; but he took an active part in the revolutionary move ment of 1848, and was compelled to leave France after the coup d etat of 1851. In England, where he found refuge, he worked in the Co-operative and Trade Union move ments. He wrote also in the National Reformer, and co-operated with the Secu larists. Returning to France at the Revo lution of 1870, he became professor at the Lycee Henri IV. He lost his chair for expressing advanced opinions in the some what reactionary period 1870-75, and entered politics, sitting for many years among the anti-clericals in the Chambre.
TALLEYRAND - PERIGORD, Prince Charles Maurice de, French statesman. B. Feb. 2, 1754. Ed. College d Harcourt, Rheims Seminary, and St. Sulpice. Son of the Count de Talleyrand-Perigord, he was lamed in his infancy and thus cut off from the customary professions of the nobles. His family educated him for the Church, and he was ordained at the age of twenty-one. From 1780 to 1785 he was Agent-General of the French clergy, and became very skilful in financial matters. In 1785 he was consecrated Bishop of Autun, and in 1789 he represented Autun in the States General. Talleyrand had been from the first one of the Rationalistic clergy which then abounded in France, and at the Revolution he gradually disso ciated himself from the Church and rose to a position of importance. He was President of the Constituent Assembly, and had a large share in the framing of the constitution. It was he who proposed the nationalization of Church property, and he was very zealous and enlightened in working for a system of education. In 1791 he formally abandoned his bishopric and was excommunicated. In the follow ing year he became French ambassador afe 780
