thousands of copies of this work were circulated in Germany, France, and Russia. He also wrote a work "Love" (describing sociability and sympathetic instincts in animals); "Man and his Position in Nature" (also very widely read in Germany and France), a popular exposition of Darwinism; "Love and Love Relations in the Animal World," 1885; "Last Words on Materialism," London, 1901; etc. By all these works he has powerfully contributed to the diffusion of a materialistic—i.e., dynamic—comprehension of Nature.
Buffon, Georges (1707–1788), great French naturalist. Made the first attempt to construct a full system of Nature and to give a full description of the animal world on the bases of comparative anatomy. One of the chief services he has rendered was that, notwithstanding a severe opposition and the menaces of the Church, he put an end to the intervention of theology in questions of natural science. Chief work: "Natural History."
Buonarroti, Filippo (1761–1837), Italian lawyer. Was influenced by the ideas of Rousseau, and was expelled from Italy, Corsica, and Sardinia, for propagating revolutionary ideas. Came to Paris during the Great Revolution, and joined Babeuf for the propaganda of revolutionary Communism. Was involved in the Babeuf conspiracy in 1795, and wrote a description of it, "The Conspiracy of Babeuf." Later on was the chief inspirer of the secret Communist societies in France and Italy in the "twenties" and "thirties" of the nineteenth century.
Byelaeff (1810–1873), a Russian historian and student of old Russian law; has told better than any other historian, in four small volumes ("Tales from Russian History"), the inner life of the mediæval republics of Novgorod and Pskov. Has also written an excellent history of the Russian Peasantry and a work on Russian annals.
Cabet, Etienne (1788–1856), French Communist, who developed his ideas in his journal, Le Populaire; and published in 1842 his chief work, "A Journey to Icaria," in which he developed in full his theory of authoritarian State Communism. This work was widely read and went through many editions, that of 1856 containing an analysis of the predecessors of Cabet, including those of the French Revolution. In 1848 he attempted to put his ideas into practice in Texas, and later on in the State of Illinois, but failed. Still, the colony, "Young Icaria," continued to exist in the "eighties" of last century.
Clausius, Rudolf (1822–1888), German physicist, renowned for his studies on optics, electricity, and especially the mechanical theory of heat, of which he established one of the fundamental laws.
Comte, Auguste (1793–1857), the founder of Positivism. His "Course of Positive Philosophy" is an attempt at working out a synthetic philosophy of all human knowledge on a purely scientific foundation. Positive philosophy meant, in Comte's conception, the following:—He established that all human knowledge began first as theological conceptions (for instance, man considers thunder as an expression of