Taine

(Hippolyte Adolphe), D.C.L., brilliant French man of letters, b. Vouziers, 21 April, 1828. Educated at the College Bourbon (now the Condor cet Lyceum), in ’53 he took the degree of Doctor of Letters. In ’56 appears his French Philosophers of the Nineteenth Century , in which he sharply criticised the spiritualist and religious school. He came to England and studied English Literature; his Hand History of which was sent in for the Academy prize, ’63, but rejected on the motion of Bishop Dupanloup on account of its materialist opinions. Also wrote on English Positivism , a study of J. S. Mill. In ’71 Oxford made him D.C.L., and in Nov. ’78, he was elected to the French Academy; his latest work is The Origins of Contemporary France .