Allen (Charles Grant Blairfindie), naturalist and author, b. in Kingston, Canada, 24 Feb. 1848. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, and graduated with honors 1871. In 1873 appointed Professor of Logic in Queen’s College, Spanish town, Jamaica; from 1874 to ’77 he was its principal. Since then he has resided in England, and become known by his popular expositions of Darwinism. His published works include Physiological Æsthetics (1877), The Evolutionist at Large (1881), Nature Studies (1883), Charles Darwin (1885), and several novels. Grant Allen has also edited the miscellaneous works of Buckle, and has written on Force and Energy (1888).
Allen (Ethan) Col., American soldier, b. at Litchfield, Connecticut, 10 Jan. 1737. One of the most active of the revolutionary heroes, he raised a company of volunteers known as the “Green Mountain Boys,” and took by surprise the British fortress of Ticonderoga, capturing 100 guns, 10 May, 1775. He was declared an outlaw and £100 offered for his arrest by Gov. Tryon of New York. Afterwards he was taken prisoner and sent to England. At first treated with cruelty, he was eventually exchanged for another officer, 6 May, 1778. He was a member of the state legislature, and succeeded in obtaining the recognition of Vermont as an independent state. He published in 1784 Reason the only Oracle of Man, the first publication in the United States openly directed against the Christian religion. It has been frequently reprinted and is still popular in America. Died Burlington, Vermont, 13 Feb. 1789. A statue is erected to him at Montpelier, Vermont.
Allsop (Thomas). “The favorite disciple of Coleridge,” b. 10 April, 1794, near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, he lived till 1880. A friend of Robert Owen and the Chartists. He was implicated in the attempt of Orsini against Napoleon III. In his Letters, Conversations and Recollections of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he has imported many of his Freethought views.
Alm (Richard von der). See [Ghillany (F. W.)]
Alpharabius (Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan) (Abu Nasr), called Al Farabi, Turkish philosopher, termed by Ibn Khallikan the greatest philosopher the Moslems ever had, travelled to Bagdad, mastered the works of Aristotle, and became master of Avicenna. Al Farabi is said to have taught the eternity of the world and to have denied the permanent individuality of the soul. His principal work is a sort of encyclopædia. Rénan says he expressly rejected all supernatural revelation. Died at Damascus Dec. 950, aged upwards of eighty.
Amaury or Amalric de Chartres, a heretic of the thirteenth century, was a native of Bene, near Chartres, and lived at Paris, where he gave lessons in logic. In a work bearing the title of Physion, condemned by a bull of Pope Innocent III. (1204), he is said to have taught a kind of Pantheism, and that the reign of the Father and Son must give place to that of the Holy Spirit. Ten of his disciples were burnt at Paris 20 Dec. 1210, and the bones of Amaury were exhumed and placed in the flames.
Amberley (John Russell) Viscount, eldest son of Earl Russell, b. 1843. Educated at Harrow, Edinburgh and Trinity College, Cambridge, where ill-health prevented him reading for honors. He entered Parliament in 1866 as Radical member for Nottingham. Lord Amberley contributed thoughtful articles to the North British, the Fortnightly and Theological Reviews, and will be remembered by his bold Analysis of Religious Belief (1876), in which he examines, compares and criticises the various faiths of the world. Lord Amberley left his son to be brought up by Mr. Spalding, a self-taught man of great ability and force of character; but the will was set aside, on appeal to the Court of Chancery, in consideration of Mr. Spalding’s heretical views. Died 8 Jan. 1876.
Amman (Hans Jacob), German surgeon and traveller, b. Lake Zurich 1586. In 1612 he went to Constantinople, Palestine and Egypt, and afterwards published a curious book called Voyage in the Promised Land. Died at Zurich, 1658.
Ammianus (Marcellinus). Roman soldier-historian of the fourth century, b. at Antioch. He wrote the Roman history from the reign of Nerva to the death of Valens in thirty-one books, of which the first thirteen are lost. His history is esteemed impartial and trustworthy. He served under Julian, and compares the rancor of the Christians of the period to that of wild beasts. Gibbon calls him “an accurate and faithful guide.” Died about 395 A.D.
Ammonius, surnamed Saccas or the Porter, from his having been obliged in the early part of his life to adopt that calling, was born of Christian parents in Alexandria during the second century. He, however, turned Pagan and opened a school of philosophy. Among his pupils were Origen, Longinus and Plotinus. He undoubtedly originated the Neo-Platonic movement, which formed the most serious opposition to Christianity in its early career. Ammonius died A.D. 243, aged over eighty years.