Campbell (Alexander), Socialist of Glasgow, b. about the beginning of the century. He early became a Socialist, and was manager at the experiment at Orbiston under Abram Combe, of whom he wrote a memoir. Upon the death of Combe, 1827, he became a Socialist missionary in England. He took an active part in the co-operative movement, and in the agitation for an unstamped press, for which he was tried and imprisoned at Edinburgh, 1833–4. About 1849 he returned to Glasgow and wrote on the Sentinel. In 1867 he was presented with a testimonial and purse of 90 sovereigns by admirers of his exertions in the cause of progress. Died about 1873.
Campion (William), a shoemaker, who became one of R. Carlile’s shopmen; tried 8 June, 1824, for selling Paine’s Age of Reason. After a spirited defence he was found guilty and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. In prison he edited, in conjunction with J. Clarke, E. Hassell, and T. R. Perry, the Newgate Monthly Magazine, to which he contributed some thoughtful papers, from Sept. 1824, to Aug. 1826, when he was removed to the Compter.
Canestrini (Giovanni), Italian naturalist, b. Rerò, 1835. He studied at Vienna, and in ’60 was nominated Professor of Natural History at Geneva. Signor Canestrini contributed to the Annuario Filosofico del Libero Pensiero, and is known for his popularisation of the works of Darwin, which he has translated into Italian. He has written upon the Origin of Man, which has gone through two editions, Milan, ’66–’70, and on the Theory of Evolution, Turin, ’77. He was appointed Professor of Zoology, Anatomy and Comparative Physiology at Padua, where he has published a Memoir of Charles Darwin, ’82.
Cardano (Girolamo), better known as Jerome Cardan, Italian mathematician, and physician, b. Pavia, 24 Sept. 1501. He studied medicine, but was excluded from the Milan College of Physicians on account of illegitimate birth. He and his young wife were at one time compelled to take refuge in the workhouse. It is not strange that his first work was an exposure of the fallacies of the faculty. A fortunate cure brought him into notice and he journeyed to Scotland as the medical adviser of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, 1551. In 1563 he was arrested at Bologna for heresy, but was released, although deprived of his professorship. He died at Rome, 20 Sept. 1576, having, it is said, starved himself to verify his own prediction of his death. Despite some superstition, Cardano did much to forward science, especially by his work on Algebra, and in his works De Subtilitate Rerum and De Varietate Rerum, amid much that is fanciful, perceived the universality of natural law and the progressive evolution of life. Scaliger accused him of Atheism. Pünjer says “Cardanus deserves to be named along with Telesius as one of the principal founders of Natural Philosophy.”
Carducci (Giosuè), Italian poet and Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Bologna, b. Pietrasantra, in the province of Lucca, 27 July, 1836. As early as ’49 he cried, Abasso tutti i re! viva la republica—Down with all kings! Long live the republic! Sprung into fame by his Hymn to Satan, ’69, by which he intended the spirit of resistance. He has written many poems and satires in which he exhibits himself an ardent Freethinker and Republican. At the end of ’57 he wrote his famous verse “Il secoletto vil che cristianeggia”—“This vile christianising century.” In ’60 he became professor of Greek in Bologna University, being suspended for a short while in ’67 for an address to Mazzini. In ’76 he was elected as republican deputy to the Italian Parliament for Lugo di Romagna.
Carlile (Eliza Sharples), second wife of Richard Carlile, came from Lancashire during the imprisonment of Carlile and Taylor, 1831, delivered discourses at the Rotunda, and started a journal, the Isis, which lasted from 11 Feb. to 15 Dec. 1832. The Isis was dedicated to the young women of England “until superstition is extinct,” and contained Frances Wright’s discourses, in addition to those by Mrs. Carlile, who survived till ’61. Mr. Bradlaugh lodged with Mrs. Carlile at the Warner Place Institute, in 1849. She had three children, Hypatia, Theophila and Julian, of whom the second is still living.
Carlile (Jane), first wife of R. Carlile, who carried on his business during his imprisonment, was proceeded against, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, 1821. She had three children, Richard, Alfred, and Thomas Paine Carlile, the last of whom edited the Regenerator, a Chartist paper published at Manchester, 1839.
Carlile (Richard), foremost among the brave upholders of an English free press, b. Ashburton, Devon, 8 Dec. 1790. He was apprenticed to a tin-plate worker, and followed that business till he was twenty-six, when, having read the works of Paine, he began selling works like Wooler’s Black Dwarf, which Government endeavored to suppress. Sherwin offered him the dangerous post of publisher of the Republican, which he accepted. He then published Southey’s Wat Tyler, reprinted the political works of Paine and the parodies for which Hone was tried, but which cost Carlile eighteen weeks’ imprisonment. In 1818 he published Paine’s Theological Works. The prosecution instituted induced him to go on printing similar works, such as Palmer’s Principles of Nature, Watson Refuted, Jehovah Unveiled, etc. By Oct. 1819, he had six indictments to answer, on two of which he was tried from 12 to 16 October. He read the whole of the Age of Reason in his defence, in order to have it in the report of the trial. He was found guilty and sentenced (16 Nov.) to fifteen hundred pounds fine and three years’ imprisonment in Dorchester Gaol. During his imprisonment his business was kept on by a succession of shopmen. Refusing to find securities not to publish, he was kept in prison till 18 Nov. 1835, when he was liberated unconditionally. During his imprisonment he edited the Republican, which extended to fourteen volumes. He also edited the Deist, the Moralist, the Lion (four volumes), the Prompter (for No. 3 of which he again suffered thirty-two months’ imprisonment), and the Gauntlet. Amongst his writings are An Address to Men of Science, The Gospel according to R. Carlile, What is God? Every Woman’s Book, etc. He published Doubts of Infidels, Janus on Sion, Sepher Toldoth Jeshu, D’Holbach’s Good Sense, Volney’s Ruins, and many other Freethought works. He died 10 Feb. 1843, bequeathing his body to Dr. Lawrence for scientific purposes.
Carlyle (Thomas), one of the most gifted and original writers of the century, b. 4 Dec. 1795, at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, where his father, a man of intellect and piety, held a small farm. Showing early ability he was intended for the Kirk, and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He, however, became a tutor, and occupied his leisure in translating from the German. He married Jane Welsh 17 Oct. 1826, and wrote in the London Magazine and Edinburgh Review many masterly critical articles, notably on Voltaire, Diderot, Burns, and German literature. In 1833–4 his Sartor Resartus appeared in Fraser’s Magazine. In ’34 he removed to London and began writing the French Revolution, the MS. of the first vol. of which he confided to Mill, with whom it was accidentally burnt. He re-wrote the work without complaint, and it was published in ’37. He then delivered a course of lectures on “German Literature” and on “Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History,” in which he treats Mahomet as the prophet “we are freest to speak of.” His Past and Present was published in ’43. In ’45 appeared Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches. In ’50 he published Latter-Day Pamphlets, which contains his most distinctive political and social doctrines, and in the following year his Life of John Sterling, in which his heresy clearly appears. His largest work is his History of the Life and Times of Frederick the Great, in 10 vols. He was elected rector of Edinburgh University in ’65. Died 5 Feb. 1881. Mr. Froude, in his Biography of Carlyle, says, “We have seen him confessing to Irving that he did not believe as his friend did in the Christian religion.” ... “the special miraculous occurrences of sacred history were not credible to him.”
Carneades, sceptical philosopher, b. Cyrene about B.C. 213. He went early to Athens, and attended the lectures of the Stoics, learning logic from Diogenes. In the year 155, he was chosen with other deputies to go to Rome to deprecate a fine which had been placed on the Athenians. During his stay at Rome he attracted great attention by his philosophical orations. Carneades attacked the very idea of a God at once infinite and an individual. He denied providence and design. Many of his arguments are preserved in Cicero’s Academics and De Natura Deorum. Carneades left no written works; his views seem to have been systematised by his follower Clitomachus. He died B.C. 129. Carneades is described as a man of unwearied industry. His ethics were of elevated character.