Guyau (Marie Jean), French philosopher, b. 1854, was crowned at the age of 19 by the Institute of France for a monograph on Utilitarian morality. In the following year he had charge of a course of philosophy at the Condorcet lycée at Paris. Ill health, brought on by excess of work, obliged him to retire to Mentone, where he occupied himself with literature. His principal works are La Morale d’Epicure (the morality of Epicurus), in relation to present day doctrines, 1878, La Morale Anglaise Contemporaine (Contemporary English Ethics), ’79, crowned by the Academy of Moral Sciences. Verses of a philosopher, ’81. Esquisse d’une morale sans obligation ni sanction (Sketch of morality without obligation or sanction,) ’84, and L’Irreligion de l’Avenir (the Irreligion of the Future) ’87. M. Guyau was a follower of M. Fouillée, but all his works bear the impress of profound thought and originality. A chief doctrine is the expansion of life. Died Mentone, 31 March, 1888.
Guyot (Yves), French writer and statesman, b. Dinan, 1843. He wrote with Sigismond Lacroix a Study of the Social Doctrines of Christianity, ’73, and a work on morality in the Bibliothèque Matérialiste. Elected on the Municipal Council of Paris ’74–78, he has since been a deputy to the Chamber, and is now a member of the government. He has written the Principles of Social Economy, ’84, and many works on that topic; has edited Diderot’s La Religieuse and the journals Droits de l’homme and le Bien public.
Gwynne (George), Freethought writer in the Reasoner and National Reformer, under the pen-name of “Aliquis.” His reply to J. H. Newman’s Grammar of Assent shewed much acuteness. He served the cause both by pen and purse. Died 25 Sept. 1873.
Gyllenborg (Gustaf Fredrik), Count. Swedish poet, b. 6 Dec. 1731, was one of the first members of the Academy of Stockholm and Chancellor of Upsala University. He published satires, fables, odes, etc., among which may be named The Passage of the Belt. His opinions were Deistic. Died 30 March, 1808.
Haeckel (Ernst Heinrich Philipp August), German scientist, b. Potsdam, 16 Feb. 1834; studied medicine and science at Würzburg, Berlin, and Vienna. In ’59 he went to Italy and studied zoology at Naples, and two years later was made Professor of Zoology at Jena. Between ’66 and ’75 he travelled over Europe besides visiting Syria and Egypt, and later he visited India and Ceylon, writing an interesting account of his travels. He is the foremost German supporter of evolution; his Natural History of Creation, ’68, having gone through many editions, and been translated into English ’76, as have also his Evolution of Man, 2 vols. ’79, and Pedigree of Man, ’83. Besides numerous monographs and an able work on Cellular Psychology, Professor Haeckel has published important Popular Lectures on Evolution, ’78, and on Freedom in Science and Teaching, published with a prefatory note by Professor Huxley, ’79.
Hagen (Benjamin Olive), Socialist, b. 25 June, 1791. About the year 1841 his attention was attracted to the Socialists by the abuse they received. Led thus to inquire, he embraced the views of Robert Owen, and was their chief upholder for many years in the town of Derby, where he lived to be upwards of seventy years of age. His wife also deserves mention as an able lady of Freethought views.
Halley (Edmund), eminent English astronomer, known in his lifetime as “the Infidel Mathematician,” b. Haggerston, London, 29 Oct. 1656; educated at Oxford. At twenty he had made observations of the planets and of the spots on the sun. In Nov. ’76 he went to St. Helena where he prepared his Catalogue of Southern Stars, ’79. He also found how to take the sun’s parallax by means of the transits of Mercury or Venus. In ’78 he was elected a F.R.S. Two years later he made observation on “Halley’s comet,” and in ’83 published his theory of the variation of the magnet. He became a friend of Sir Isaac Newton, whom he persuaded to publish his Principia. In ’98 he commanded a scientific expedition to the South Atlantic. In 1713 he was made sec. of the Royal Society and in 1720 Astronomer-royal. He then undertook a task which required nineteen years to perform, viz: to observe the moon throughout an entire revolution of her nodes. He lived to finish this task. Died 14 Jan. 1742. Halley was the first who conceived that fixed stars had a proper motion in space. Chalmers in his Biographical Dictionary says, “It must be deeply regretted that he cannot be numbered with those illustrious characters who thought it not beneath them to be Christians.”
Hammon (W.), pseudonym of Turner William, q. v.
Hamond or Hamont (Matthew), English heretic, by trade a ploughwright, of Hethersett, Norfolk, burnt at Norwich, May 1579, for holding “that the New Testament and the Gospel of Christ were pure folly, a human invention, a mere fable.” He had previously been set in the pillory and had both his ears cut off.
Hannotin (Emile), French Deist, b. Bar le Duc in 1812, and some time editor of the Journal de la Meuse. Author of New Philosophical Theology, ’46; Great Questions, ’67; Ten Years of Philosophical Studies, ’72; and an Essay on Man, in which he seeks to explain life by sensibility.