A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 822 pages of information about A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.

A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 822 pages of information about A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.

JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY (1835-1882).—­Logician and economist, b. in Liverpool, s. of an iron merchant, his mother was the dau. of W. Roscoe (q.v.).  He was ed. at the Mechanics Institute High School, Liverpool, and at University Coll., London.  After studying chemistry for some time he received in 1853 the appointment of assayer to the mint at Sydney, where he remained until 1859, when he resigned his appointment, and came home to study mathematics and economics.  While in Australia he had been a contributor to the Empire newspaper, and soon after his return home he pub. Remarks on the Australian Goldfields, wrote in various scientific periodicals, and from time to time pub. important papers on economical subjects.  The position which he had attained as a scientific thinker and writer was recognised by his being appointed in 1863 tutor, and in 1866, Prof. of Logic, Political Economy, and Mental and Moral Philosophy in Owen’s Coll., Manchester.  In 1864 he pub. Pure Logic and The Coal Question; other works were Elementary Lessons in Logic (1870), Principles of Science (1874), and Investigations in Currency and Finance (1884), posthumously.  His valuable and promising life was brought to a premature close by his being drowned while bathing.  His great object in his writings was to place logic and economics in the position of exact sciences, and in all his work he showed great industry and care combined with unusual analytical power.

JEWSBURY, GERALDINE ENDSOR (1812-1880).—­Novelist, wrote several novels, of which Zoe, The Half-Sisters, and Constance Herbert may be mentioned.  She also wrote stories for children, and was a contributor to various magazines.

JOHN of SALISBURY (1120?-1180?).—­B. at Salisbury, studied at Paris.  He became sec. to Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury, and retained the office under Becket.  In 1176 he was made Bishop of Chartres.  He wrote in Latin, in 8 books, Polycraticus, seu De Nugis Curialium et Vestigiis Philosophorum (on the Trifles of the Courtiers, and the Footsteps of the Philosophers).  In it he treats of pastimes, flatterers, tyrannicide, the duties of kings and knights, virtue and vice, glory, and the right of the Church to remove kings if in its opinion they failed in their duty.  He also wrote a Life of Anselm.  He was one of the greatest scholars of the Middle Ages.

JOHNSON, LIONEL (1867-1902).—­Poet and critic. Ireland and other Poems (2 vols.) (1897), The Art of Thomas Hardy, and miscellaneous critical works.

JOHNSON, SAMUEL (1649-1703).—­Political writer, sometimes called “the Whig” to distinguish him from his great namesake.  Of humble extraction, he was ed. at St. Paul’s School and Camb., and took orders.  He attacked James II. in Julian the Apostate (1682), and was imprisoned.  He continued, however, his attacks on the Government by pamphlets, and did much to influence the public mind in favour of the Revolution.  Dryden gave him a place in Absalom and Achitophel as “Benjochanan.”  After the Revolution he received a pension, but considered himself insufficiently rewarded by a Deanery, which he declined.

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A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.