Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/1049

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1032

SYME— TATNE.

States. Professor Sylvester is chiefly known as an algebraist, and as a friend and fellow-worker of Arthur Cayley. Ho has given a theory of Veraihcation in a volume published under the title of " Laws of Verse ; " is the inventor of the Plagiograph, the Geometrical Fan, and other Geometrico - Mechanical Instru- ments. He introduced into Eng- land, and greatly generalized, Peau- cellier's method of Linkages on which he gave a lecture at the Boyal Institution.

SYME, JoHK Thokas Ibvink BoswELL. (See Boswbll.)

SYMONDS, John Addinoton, bom at Bristol, Oct. 5, 1840, was educated at Harrow School, and BaUiol College, Oxford. He was elected, in 1862, to a fellowship at Magdalen College, in that Univer- sity, and vacated it by his marriage. He has written ** Introduction to the Study of Dante ;" " Studies of the Greek Poets," 2 vols. ; " Sketches in Italy and Greece;" "Renais- sance in Italy," 5 vols, j " Sketches and Studies in Italy;" "Shelley" in the " English Men of Letters Series ; " the article on " Italian History" in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica ;" a translation of the " Sonnets of Michael Angelo and Campanella;" "Many Moods," a volume of verse ; " New and Old," a volume of verse ; " Animi Figura," a volume of sonnets ; and " Italian By-ways." All the above appeared between 1872 and 1883.

T.

TAGLIONI, Mabia, dancer, of Italian descent, was born at Stock- holm, in March, 1804. Her father T7.^^ ballet-master at some of the o >.ra-house3 on the Continent, and his daughter made her d^but in 1827 at the French Opera, where she achieved a great success, and in- creased her fame by visits to most of the capitals of Europe, appearing in London in 1838. In the exqui-

site airy style of her performance, dancing might truly be said to be " the poetry of motion." She was married to Count Gilbert de Voisins, and in 181-7 retired from the stage. Madame Taglioni, who had been left a widow, lost all her property in the late Franco-German war. She is now established in London, and occupies herself in giving to young ladies lessons in dancing and deportment.

TAINE, HiPPOLYTE Adoi«phs, a member of the IVench Academy, bom April 21, 1828, at Vouziers (Ardennes) , pursued his studies with brilliant success in the College Bourbon, gaining the prize of honour for rhetoric at the general competition of 18^1-7, and being in the following year first on the list of those admitted to the Normal School (Section of Literature). After having obtained, in 1853^ the diploma of Doctor in Letters by two theses — " De Personis Plato- nicis," and "Essai sur les Fables de La Fontaine" — he renounced the career of university teaching and brought out several works. Two of these, written in a most brilliant style, contained opinions diametrically opposed to the tradi- tional doctrines of the University, and produced a great sensation. One was an " Essai sur Tite-Live," 1854, "crowned" by the French Academy, and designed by the author as an application and a de- monstration of the system of Spi- noza; the other, entitled "Philo- sophes Fran^ais due XI Xe si^le," 1856, 2nd edition, 1860, sharply cri- ticised the spiritualist philosophers and religious writers. These and many of his subsequent works were received with high favour by the materialist school. In March , 1 8G3, M. Taine was appointed Examiner in Literature at the Military school of Saint-CjT, and, iu Oct., 1864, Professor of the History of Art and .Esthetics at the hcole des Beaux Arts. In June, 1868, he married the daughter of M. Denuelle, a rich