Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/460

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VIVIAN, PHILIP"


VOELKEL


Germany, was a follower of Hegel and a friend of Strauss. His chief work is his dSsthetik, oder Wissenschaft des Schonen (3 vols., 1847-58) ; but he wrote a good deal of biting satire of current opinions (especially his Epigramme aus Baden- Baden, 1867) under the pseudonyms of " Mystifizinsky " and " Schartenmeyer." D. Sep. 14, 1887.

"YIYIAN, Philip." See PHELIPS, VIVIAN.

YIYIAN I, Rene Raphael, French statesman. B. 1863. Ed. Paris Ecole de Droit. Like many of the French Socialist leaders, Viviani was trained in law. He began to practise in Algeria, where he was born, and was then called to the Paris Bar. He became secretary of the Conf6rence des Avocats in 1889. In 1893 he was returned to the Chambre as Socialist Deputy for Paris, and he was re-elected in 1898. He secured the passing of a law to permit women to act as barristers, and was active in promoting all reforms. For some years he was editor of La Lanterne. In 1902 he failed at the polls, and returned to the Bar ; and two years later he joined the staff of L Humanite. He returned to the Chambre in 1906, and Clemenceau made him Minister of Labour. Viviani created a sensation by his first speech as Minister. He said that they had slain " the religious chimaera " and " extinguished in the firma ment stars that would never again be lighted." He is an excellent scholar and uncompromising Agnostic.

YIZETELLY, Henry, writer and artist. B. July 30, 1820. Ed. Chislehurst. The family was of Italian origin, but had for several generations been engaged in printing at London. Henry was apprenticed to an engraver, and in 1843 he and his brother started the Pictorial Times. He was a very clever engraver, and not less successful in founding periodicals. In 1865 he went to Paris as correspondent of the Illustrated London News, and remained there until 847


1880. His experiences during the war are described in Paris in Peril (2 vols., 1882) ; and he wrote Berlin under the New Empire (2 vols., 1879) and several novels. On his return to London he set up a publishing business, especially for the issue of trans lations of French literature, though he also published " The Mermaid Series " of old English plays. He began to issue his well-known translations of Zola in 1884, and in 1888 he was fined a hundred pounds for publishing The Soil. In the following year he courageously republished the whole of Zola s novels, and was condemned to three months in prison. He describes his life experiences in Glances Back Through Seventy Years (1893). Vizetelly had no more regard for religion than Zola had. D. Jan. 1, 1894.

YLOTEN, Johannes von, D.D., Dutch writer. B. Jan. 18, 1818. Ed. Leyden University. He taught history for some years at Eotterdam Gymnasium, and was from 1854 to 1867 professor of the Dutch language and literature at Deventer Aca demy. Van Vioten had been trained for the Church, but he had become a Eation- alist, and on account of his outspoken utterances he was compelled to leave the academic world and devote himself to writing. He edited De Levensbode, to which he contributed much caustic Eationalism, and wrote The Tubingen School (1848), Jesus of Nazareth (1863), and other very critical works. He published also a life of Spinoza (Baruch Spinoza, 1862), whom he followed, and edited his works in Dutch. Apart from his Eationalist activity, Van Vioten was a literary man of considerable distinction. He translated into Dutch several of Shakespeare s plays. D. Sep. 21, 1883.

YOELKEL, Titus, German writer and lecturer. B. Dec. 14, 1841. Voelkel was trained in theology, science, and mathe matics, and he then spent a few years in France. He returned to Germany in 1870, and for ten years he taught in secondary