VOGT
VOLNEY
schools. In 1880 he began to give Bation-
alist lectures, and in a few years he was
one of the most industrious and most hated
speakers in Germany. In 1885 he became
editor of the Neues Freircligioses Sonntags-
blatt. During 1887 and 1888 he was five
times prosecuted for blasphemy, and
acquitted on each occasion ; but in 1891
he was, after a travesty of a trial, found
guilty and sentenced to two years in
prison. He occasionally went as deputy
to the International Freethought Congress.
YOGI, Professor Karl, Swiss geologist and physiologist. B. July 5, 1817. Ed. Giessen University. Vogt studied medicine, and worked for some time in Liebig s laboratory. He then went to Berne to study anatomy and physiology, and for some time he worked under Agassiz. He spent two years at Paris (1844-46), and completed his long and thorough education in Italy. In 1847 he was appointed pro fessor of zoology at Giessen University, but he was deprived of his position for his share in the revolutionary movement of 1848. He was a Deputy at the Frankfort Parliament, and one of the most brilliant orators in the National Assembly. After a few years further study at Borne, he became professor of geology at Geneva in 1852, and was naturalized as a Swiss. He was elected to the Swiss National Council in 1878, and was later a member of the Grand Council. Vogt, who was one of the most widely cultivated men of science of his time, was also one of the first champions of Darwinism on the Continent, and, like Huxley, he at once applied evolution to man (Vorlesungen ilber den Menschen, 2 vols., 1863). His chief Eationalist work is Kohlerglaube uncl Wissenschaft (1855). He was an Atheist and a Materialist. His works are not expressly Materialistic, but Biichner quotes him saying in one of his letters that "thought bears the same relation to the brain as the bile to the liver " (Last Words on Materialism, p. 140). In another letter he speaks of Christmas as "the festival which brought the hypo- 849
crisy of humility into the world." Vogt
was a brilliant man, of exceptional culture,
and he wrote with equal weight on zoology,
geology, and anthropology. His standard
of conduct was rigorous, and his humani
tarian zeal intense. He exiled himself
from his native land for the truth. D.
May 5, 1895.
YOLKMAR, Professor GustaY, German theological writer. B. Jan. 11, 1809. Ed. Marburg University. He began to teach in 1833, and served in a number of pro vincial colleges until 1852, when he lost his position by expressing advanced political opinions. Volkmar then applied himself to theology. He was appointed extra ordinary professor of theology at Zurich in 1858, and ordinary professor in 1863. His works (chiefly Die Religion Jesu, 1857 ; Der Ursprung unserer Evangelien, 1866 ; and Jesus Nazarenus und die erste Christ- liche Zeit, 1881) are of the liberal-theolo gical school or embody a Theistic Eation- alism tempered by an official position as professor of theology. Mr. Eobertson describes them as " stringent critical per formances, irreconcilable with orthodoxy " (Short History of Freethought, ii, 427). They, in fact, entirely exclude supernatural considerations. D. Jan. 10, 1893.
YOLNEY, Count Constantin Francois Ghasseboeuf de, French writer and poli tician. B. Feb. 3, 1757. Ed. Ancenis, Angers, and Paris. Volney was trained in medicine and oriental languages, and from 1783 to 1787 he travelled in Egypt and Syria (Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, 2 vols., 1887), seeing the ruins of many empires. He returned to France just before the political upheaval, which now engrossed him, and he was sent as Deputy to the States General. He adopted the Eevolution, and sat in the National Assem bly. A grave and moderate man, of high sentiments, he opposed Eobespierre s tyranny, and was imprisoned for ten months. At his release he was appointed professor of history at the Ecole Normale ; 850
