Flaubert (Gustave), French novelist, b. Rouen, 12 Dec. 1821. The son of a distinguished surgeon, he abandoned his father’s profession for literature. His masterpiece, Madame Bovary, published in ’56 in the Revue de Paris, drew a prosecution upon that journal which ended in a triumph for the author. For his next great work, Salammbô, ’62, an epic of Carthage, he prepared himself by long antiquarian studies. His intellectual tendencies are displayed in The Temptation of Saint Anthony. He stands eminent among the naturalist school for his artistic fidelity. He was a friend of Théophile Gautier, Ivan Turgenev, Emile Zola and “George Sand.” His correspondence with the last of these has been published. He distinctly states therein that on subjects like immortality men cheat themselves with words. Died at Rouen, 9 May, 1880.
Flourens (Marie Jean Pierre), French scientist, b. near Béziers, 15 April, 1794. In 1828 he was admitted into the Academy of Sciences, after having published a work on the nervous system of vertebrates; he became perpetual secretary in ’33. A work on Human Longevity and the Quantity of Life on the Globe was very popular. Died near Paris, 6 Dec. 1867.
Flourens (Gustave), eldest son of the preceding, b. Paris, 4 Aug. 1838. In ’63 he took his father’s chair at the College of France, and his course on “Ethnography” attracted much attention. In the following year he published his work on The Science of Man. His bold heresy lost him his chair, and he collaborated on Larousse’s Grand Dictionnaire. In ’65 he left France for Crete, where for three years he fought in the mountains against the Turkish troops. Upon his return he was arrested for presiding at a political meeting. He showed himself an ardent Revolutionist, and was killed in a skirmish near Nanterre, 3 April, 1871.
Fonblanque (Albany William), English journalist, b. London, 1793; the son of an eminent lawyer. In 1820 he was on the staff of the Times, and contributed to the Westminster Review. In ’30 he became editor of the Examiner, and retained his post until ’47. His caustic wit and literary attainments did much to forward advanced liberal views. A selection of his editorials was published under the title, England under Seven Administrations. Died 13 Oct. 1872.
Fontanier (Jean), French writer, who was burnt at the Place de Grève, 1621, for blasphemies in a book entitled Le Tresor Inestimable. Garasse, with little reason, calls him an Atheist.
Fontenelle (Bernard le Bovier de), nephew of Corneille, called by Voltaire the most universal genius of the reign of Louis XIV., b. Rouen, 11 Feb. 1657. Dedicated to the Virgin and St. Bernard, he was educated at the Jesuits’ College. He went to Paris in 1674; wrote some plays and Dialogues of the Dead, 1683. In 1686 appeared his Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, and in the following year his History of Oracles, based on the work of Van Dale, for which he was warmly attacked by the Jesuit Baltus, as impugning the Church Fathers. He was made secretary to the Academy of Sciences in 1699, a post he held forty-two years. He wrote Doubts on the Physical System of Occasional Causes, and is also credited with a letter on the Resurrection of the Body, a piece on The Infinite, and a Treatise on Liberty; “but,” says l’Abbé Ladvocat, “as these books contain many things contrary to religion, it is to be hoped they are not his.” Fontenelle nearly reached the age of one hundred. A short time before he died (9 Jan. 1757), being asked if he felt any pain, “I only feel,” he replied, “a difficulty of existing.”
Foote (George William), writer and orator, b. Plymouth, 11 Jan. 1850. Was “converted” in youth, but became a Freethinker by reading and independent thought. Came to London in 1868, and was soon a leading member of the Young Men’s Secular Association. He taught in the Hall of Science Sunday School, and became secretary of the Republican League. Devoting his time to propagating his principles, he wrote in the Secular Chronicle and National Reformer, and in ’76 started the Secularist in conjunction with Mr. G. J. Holyoake, and after the ninth number conducting it alone. This afterwards merged in the Secular Review. In ’79 Mr. Foote edited the Liberal, and in Sept. ’81, started the Freethinker, which he still edits. In the following year a prosecution was commenced by the Public Prosecutor, who attempted to connect Mr. Bradlaugh with it. Undaunted, Mr. Foote issued a Christmas number with an illustrated “Comic Life of Christ.” For this a prosecution was started by the City authorities against him and his publisher and printer, and the trial came on first in March, ’83. The jury disagreed, but Judge North refused to discharge the prisoners, and they were tried again on the 5th March; Judge North directing that a verdict of guilty must be returned, and sentencing Mr. Foote to one year’s imprisonment as an ordinary criminal subject to the same “discipline” as burglars. “I thank you, my lord; your sentence is worthy of your creed,” he remarked. On 24 April, ’83, Mr. Foote was brought from prison before Lord Coleridge and a special jury on the first charge, and after a splendid defence, upon which he was highly complimented by the judge, the jury disagreed. He has debated with Dr. McCann, Rev. A. J. Harrison, the Rev. W. Howard, the Rev. H. Chapman, and others. Mr. Foote has written much, and lectures continually. Among his works we mention Heroes and Martyrs of Freethought (1876); God, the Soul, and a Future State; Secularism the True Philosophy of Life (1879); Atheism and Morality; The Futility of Prayer; Bible Romances; Death’s Test, afterwards enlarged into Infidel Death-Beds; The God Christians Swear by; Was Jesus Insane? Blasphemy No Crime; Arrows of Freethought; Prisoner for Blasphemy (1884); Letters to Jesus Christ; What Was Christ? Bible Heroes; and has edited The Bible Hand-book with Mr. W. P. Ball, and the Jewish Life of Christ with the present writer, in conjunction with whom he has written The Crimes of Christianity. From 1883–87 he edited Progress, in which appeared many important articles from his pen. Mr. Foote is President of the London Secular Federation, and a Vice-President of the National Secular Society.
Fouillee (Alfred), French philosopher, b. La Pouëze, near Angers, 18 Oct. 1838. Has been teacher at several lyceums, notably at Bordeaux. He was crowned by the Academy of Moral Sciences for two works on the Philosophy of Plato and Socrates. Elected Professor of Philosophy at the Superior Normal School, Paris, he sustained a thesis at the Sorbonne on Liberty and Determinism, which was violently attacked by the Catholics. This work has gone through several editions. M. Fonillée has also written an able History of Philosophy, 1875, Contemporary Social Science, and an important Critique of Contemporary Moral Systems (1883). He has written much in the Revue des Deux Mondes, and is considered, with Taine, Ribot, and Renan, the principal representative of French philosophy. His system is known as that of idèes-forces, as he holds that ideas are themselves forces. His latest work expounds the views of M. Guyau.
Forberg (Friedrich Karl), German philosopher, b. Meuselwitz, 30 Aug. 1770, studied theology at Leipsic, and became private docent at Jena. Becoming attached to Fichte’s philosophy, he wrote with Fichte in Niethammer’s Philosophical Journal on “The Development of Religious Ideas,” and an article on “The Ground of our Faith in Divine Providence,” which brought on them a charge of Atheism, and the journal was confiscated by the Electorate of Saxony. Forberg held religion to consist in devotion to morality, and wrote An Apology for Alleged Atheism, 1799. In 1807 he became librarian at Coburg, and devoted himself to the classics, issuing a Manuel d’Erotologie Classique. Died Hildburghausen 1 Jan. 1848.
Forder (Robert), b. Yarmouth, 14 Oct. 1844. Coming to to Woolwich, he became known as a political and Freethought lecturer. He took part in the movement to save Plumstead Common from the enclosers, and was sent to trial for riotous proceedings, but was acquitted. In ’77 he was appointed paid secretary to the National Secular Society, a post he has ever since occupied. During the imprisonment of Messrs. Foote, Ramsey, and Kemp, in ’83, Mr. Forder undertook charge of the publishing business. He has lectured largely, and written some pamphlets.