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Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The ...
A Greek philosopher of the 6th century B.C., the founder of the Atomic theory of things, of which Democritus was the chief expounder.
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A French democrat, born near Paris; called to the bar in 1830; became a leader of the democratic movement in the reign of Louis Philippe, and gained the title of the "Tribune of the Revolution"; in 1848 he became a member of the Provisional Government; was Minister of the Interior; secured for France the privilege of universal suffrage; his opposition to Louis Napoleon obliged him to seek refuge in England, where he took part in a general democratic movement, and an amnesty being granted, he returned to France in 1870; was elected to the Assembly, but his power was gone; died suddenly (1807-1874).
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Or more properly Linné, Karl von, great Swedish naturalist, specially in the department of botany, a branch to the study of which he was devoted from his earliest years; he was the founder of the system of the classification of plants which bears his name, and which is determined by the number and disposition of the reproductive organs, but which is now superseded by the natural system of Jussieu; he was professor at Upsala, and his works on his favourite subject were numerous, and extended far and wide his reputation as a naturalist (1707-1778).
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A celebrated surgeon, born in Linlithgowshire; studied in Edinburgh and London; was distinguished as an operator; was professor of Clinical Surgery in University College, London, and author of "Elements of Surgery" and "Practical Surgery" (1794-1847).
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German philosopher, mathematician, and man of affairs, born in Leipzig; studied law and took the degree of Doctor of Laws at Altorf; spent a good part of his life at courts, visited Paris and London and formed a friendship with the savans in both cities, and finally settled in Hanover, where he moved much in the circle of the Electress Sophia and her daughter Sophia Charlotte, the Prussian Queen, whom he entertained with his philosophy of the "infinitely little," as it has been called; he discovered with Newton the basis of the differential calculus, and concocted the system of monods (his "Monodology"), between which and the soul, he taught, there existed a "pre-established harmony," issuing in the cosmos; he was an optimist, and had for his motto the oft-quoted phrase, "Everything is for the best in the best of possible worlds"; his principal works in philosophy are his "Théodicée," written at the instance of Sophia Charlotte and in refutation of Bayle, and his "Monodologie," written on the suggestion of Prince Eugene (1646-1716).
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A plastic material invented by Walton, capable of being moulded into raised patterns for decorating walls, etc.
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Prebendary of St Paul's, born in Bucks; has held several clerical appointments; is professor of Hebrew in King's College, London, and is author of a number of works bearing on Christianity; born 1830.
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A stretch of country in the N. of Europe, between the Atlantic and the White Sea; is divided between Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Its climate is very severe; mountainous in the W., it becomes more level in the E., where are many marshes, lakes, and rivers; the summer is never dark, and there are six to eight weeks of winter never light. The Lapps, of whom 18,000 are in Norwegian Lapland, are closely allied to the Finns, small of stature, thick lipped, and with small piercing eyes; proverbially uncleanly, not very intelligent, are good-natured, but untruthful and parsimonious; nominally Christian, but very superstitious; they are kindly treated by both Norway and Sweden. The mountain Lapps are nomads, whose wealth consists of herds of reindeer, which supply nearly all their wants. The sea Lapps live by fishing. The forest and river Lapps, originally nomads, have adopted a settled life, domesticated their reindeer, and taken to hunting and fishing.
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A village in Boeotia, to the S. of Thebes, where in 371 B.C. Epaminondas and his Thebans overthrew the ascendency of Sparta.
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Famous pianist, a Hungarian by birth; born with a genius for music, his first efforts at composition were not successful, and it was not till he heard what Paganini made of the violin that he thought what might be made of the piano, and that he devoted himself to the culture of piano music, with the result that he not only became the first pianist himself, but produced a set of compositions that had the effect of raising the art to the highest pitch of perfection; he was a zealous Catholic, and took holy orders, but this did not damp his ardour or weaken his power as a musician; he spent the greater part of his life at Weimar, but he practised his art far and wide, and his last visit to England in 1886, the year on which he died, created quite a flutter in musical circles (1811-1886).
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