Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/598

COUSIN. 514 COUSSEMAKER. terns of philosophy than any he had yet know-n, becoming acquainted with Jaeobi, Schelling, Hegel, and Goethe. During a later visit to Ger- many, in 18'24-25, he was suspected of revolu- tionary tendencies, arrested in Dresden, and sent to Berlin, where he was detained for six months. He took advantage of his compulsory detention in Prussia to study the pliilosophy of Hegel, which had no small influence on his susceptible intellect. On his return to France he took a de- cided stand against the reactionary policy of Charles X., and in 1827, when the comparatively liberal Ministry of Martignac came into office. Cousin, who had for some years been suspended from his professorial functions, was rein.stated in his chaii". Meanwhile he had become known as an author by his editions of Proclus and Des- cartes (1S20-26), and by his celebrated transla- tion of Plato, which was finished in 1840, in thir- teen volumes. Cousin reached the height of his popularity and influence as a philosophic teacher in the years lS28-,30, when often as many as two thousand enthusiastic hearers gathered around him. He was still young, simple, and pure in his habits; his doctrines were for the most part new to his audience, bold, and in harmony with the spirit of the time. The finest qualities of the national genius appeared in his lectures — a wonderful lucidity of exposition, and exquisite beauty of style, such as few philosophers have equaled, a brilliancy of generalization and criti- cism, and a power of coordinating the facts of history and philosophy so as to make each illus- trate the other and reveal their most intricate relations. At this period Cousin was one of the most influential leaders of opinion among the educated classes in Paris. After the Revolution of 18-30, when his friend Guizot became Prime Minister, he was made a member of the Council of Public Instruction, in 1832 a peer of France, and later director of the Ecole Xormale and vir- tual head of the University. His efforts for the or- ganization of primary' instruction are to be seen in the valuable reports which he drew up from personal observation on the state of public edu- cation in Germany and Holland. In 1840 he was elected a member of the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and in the same year be- came Minister of Public Instruction in the Cabi- net of Thiers. After the Revolution of 1848 Cousin aided the Government of Cavaignac, and published an anti-socialistic brochure called Justice et charitc. After 1849 he disappeared from public life. Cousin was greater as an expounder of his- torical systems of philosophy than as an original thinker. At first a disciple of Royer-Collard and the Scottish School, he was attached to the psy- chological method of investigating; afterwards a keen student of the German School, he ex- pounded the views of Schelling and Hegel with such enthusiasm that he might legitimately enough have been considered a 'German idealist.' But he endeavored to mediate between the Ger- man standpoint of an impersonal reason and that of empirical psychology. In the later years of his life his views carried him to a modified Cartesianism. See Descartes. Cousin's chief works, besides those already mentioned and his Fragments philosophiques (1826), appeared in two series. The first con- tained Premiers essais de philosophie; Dii rrai, du beau et du bien; Philosophie sensualiste ; Philosophie I'cossaise; Philosophie de Kant. The second contained Introduction a I'histoire de la philosophie : Histoirc generate dc la philosophic jusqu'd la fin du XVIIe siccle. He also contrib- uted a great variety of papers to the French re- views. Besides his philosophical work, he ren- dered a very real service to the history of the seventeenth century in France by his luminous and stimulating sketches of Mmes. de Longue- ville, de Hautefort, de Sable, and a number of other great personages of the period. Consult: Hamilton, Discussions on Philosophy, Literature, Education, and University Kcform (London, 1852) ; Taine, in Les philosophes classiques du XIXe siecle (Paris, 1888) ; Janet, Victor Cousin ct son acuvre (Paris, 1885) ; Barthelemy Saint- Hilaire, Victor Cousin, sa vie, sa correspondance (3 vols., Paris. 1895) ; Jules Simon, Victor Cou- .sin (Paris, 1887). COXJSINE BETTE, koo'zen' bet. La. A novel by Balzac (1S4G) dealing with the love of an aunt and a niece for the same youth. COTTSIN MICHEL, me'Kel. A humorous appellation for the German native, correspond- ing to Brother Jonathan as applied to the Ameri- can. COTTSIN-MONTATJBAN, koo'zax' moN'- to'biix', Charles Guillax-jie ^Marie, Count of P,alikao (1790-1878). A French general. He was in command of the combined English and French forces in the victorious campaign of 1800 against China, and received the title of Count of Pali- kao (a place east of Peking) fi-om the Emperor Kapoleou after the fall of Peking. He obtained rich booty for himself in the plunder of the Im- perial summer palace. In August, 1870, on the resignation of the Ollivier Ministry, immediately after the first reverses of the French, he was charged by Napoleon with the formation of a new "Ministry. He himself took charge of the nation's defenses, and in twenty-four days placed 140,000 men in the field, besides arming the capital. After the defeat at Sedan he quitted France and afterwards retired to pri- vate life. His book, Vn ministcre de vingt- qualre jours (1S71), describes his experiences. COUSIN PONS, koo'zan' pSN, Le. A novel bv Balzac (1847), describing the treatment of tiie poor relative who outstays his welcome. COUSINS, kuz'nz. Samuel (1801-87). An English engraver, born in Exeter. He was made a member of the Royal Academy in 1835, a mem- ber of the School of Engraving m 1854, and pro- fessor at the Royal Academy in 1855. He en- graved innumerable portraits after Reynolds, Lawrence, and Gainsborough, and pictures from the originals of Wilkie, Landseer, and others. COUSSEMAKEE, koos'ma'kar', Charles Ed- MOXD Henri de (1805-76). A French historian of music, born at Bailleul (Nord). After studying at the Douai Lycee, he completed his musical education under iloreau and Lefeb^Te. He devoted himself principally to researches on mediaeval music, on which subject he published the following important works: ilemoire sur JJucbald (1841); Histoire de I'harmonie au moyen-age (1852); Drames liturgiques du moyen-age (1861) ; Les harnionistes dcs Xlleme et XIlIHne siecles (1864) ; Les harmonistes du XlVeme siecle (1869); and Scriptorcs de Ma- sica Medii ^vi (1866-75), his principal work.