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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 member of the Jacobin Club, born in Provence; "a man of heat and haste,... tall, and handsome to the eye;" voted in the National Convention for the execution of the king; took part in the siege of Toulon; put an end to the career of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror; named general-in-chief to oppose the reactionaries; employed Bonaparte to command the artillery, "he the commandant's cloak, this artillery officer the commandant;" was a member of the Directory till Bonaparte swept it away (1755-1829).
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A celebrated physician, physiologist, and Encyclopaedist, born at Montpellier, where he founded a medical school; suffered greatly during the Revolution; was much esteemed and honored by Napoleon; is celebrated among physiologists as the advocate of what he called the Vital Principle as a physiological force in the functions of the human organism; his work "Nouveaux Eléments de la Science de l'Homme" has been translated into all the languages of Europe (1734-1806).
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A Spanish soldier, statesman, and diplomatist, born in Murcia; wrote a "History of the Kings of Castile," which was more than a chronicle of wars, being also a review of them; and a book of poems entitled the "Rhymes of the Court" (1332-1407).
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A famous equestrian and circus manager, along with Franconi established the Cirque Olympique in Paris (1742-1814).
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English poet, born in Nottingham; author of "Festus," a work that on its appearance in 1839 was received with enthusiasm, passed through 11 editions in England and 30 in America, was succeeded by "The Angel World," "The Mystic," "The Universal Hymn," and "The Age"; he has been rated by some extravagantly high; b. 1816.
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Son of the preceding, defeated Louis II. and became king; but with the help of France Louis retaliated and defeated the Flemings, and slew him in 1382.
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A dramatist and pleader of the most versatile, brilliant gifts, and French to the core, born in Paris, son of a watchmaker at Caen; ranks as a comic dramatist next to Molière; author of "Le Barbier de Seville" (1775), and "Le Mariage de Figaro" (1784), his masterpiece; astonished the world by his conduct of a lawsuit he had, for which "he fought against reporters, parliaments, and principalities, with light banter, clear logic, adroitly, with an inexhaustible toughness of resource, like the skilfullest fencer." He was a zealous supporter of the Revolution, and made sacrifices on its behalf, but narrowly escaped the guillotine; died in distress and poverty. Of the two plays he wrote, Saintsbury says, "The wit is indisputable, but his chansons contain as much wit as the Figaro plays." He made a fortune by speculations in the American war, and lost by others, one of them being the preparation of a sumptuous edition of Voltaire. For the culmination and decline, as well as appreciation, of him, see the "French Revolution," by Carlyle (1732-1799).
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Would-be assassin of Henry IV. of France; broken on the wheel in 1593.
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A native of Languedoc; first Protestant (as the son of a Calvinist minister), then Catholic, then sceptic; Professor of Philosophy at Padua, then at Rotterdam, and finally retired to the Boompjes in the latter city; known chiefly as the author of the famous Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, to the composition of which he consecrated his energies with a zeal worthy of a religious devotee, and which became the fountain-head of the sceptical philosophy that flooded France on the eve of the Revolution; pronounced by a competent judge in these matters, a mere "imbroglio of historical, philosophical, and anti-theological marine stores" (1647-1700).
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Grand-master of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, of French descent, who in 1480 gallantly defended Rhodes when besieged by Mahomet II., and drove the assailants back, amounting to no fewer than 100,000 men (1423-1503).
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