|
See also:DUPUIS, See also:CHARLES See also:FRANCOIS (1742-1809) , See also:French scientific writer and politician, was See also:born of poor parents at Trye-See also:Chateau, between See also:Gisors and Chaumont, on the 26th of See also:October 1742. His See also:father, who was a teacher, instructed him in See also:mathematics and See also:land-See also:surveying. While he was engaged in measuring a See also:tower by a. geometrical method, the duc de la Rochefoucauld met him and was so taken by the lad's intelligence that he gave him a bursary in the See also:college of See also:Harcourt. Dupuis made such rapid progress that, at the See also:age of twenty-four, he was appointed See also:professor of See also:rhetoric at the college of See also:Lisieux, where he had previously passed as a licentiate of See also:theology. In his See also:hours of leisure he studied See also:law, and in 1770 he abandoned the clerical career and became an See also:advocate. Two university discourses which he delivered in Latin were printed, and laid the See also:foundation of his See also:literary fame. His See also:chief See also:attention, however, was devoted to mathematics, the See also:object of his See also:early studies; and for some years he attended the astronomical lectures of See also:Lalande, with whom he formed an intimate friendship. In 1778 he constructed a See also:telegraph on the principle suggested by See also:Guillaume See also:Amontons (q.v.), and employed it in keeping up a See also:correspondence with his friend See also:Jean Fortin in the neighbouring See also:village of Bagneux, until the Revolution made it necessary to destroy his See also:machine to avoid suspicion. About the same See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time Dupuis formed his theory as to the origin of the See also:Greek months. He endeavoured to See also:account for the want of any resemblance between the See also:groups of stars and the names by which they are known, by supposing that the See also:zodiac was, for the See also:people who invented it, a sort of See also:calendar at once astronomical and rural, and that the figures chosen for the constellations were such as would naturally suggest the agricultural operations of the See also:season. It seemed only necessary, therefore, to discover the clime and the See also:period in which the See also:constellation of Capricorn must have arisen with the See also:sun on the See also:day of the summer See also:solstice, and the vernal See also:equinox must have occurred under See also:Libra. It appeared to Dupuis that this clime was Upper See also:Egypt, and that the perfect correspondence between the signs and their significations had existed in that See also:country at a period of between fifteen and sixteen thousand years before the See also:present time; that it had existed only there; and that this See also:harmony had been disturbed by the effect of the precession of the equinoxes. He therefore ascribed the invention of the signs of the zodiac to the people who then inhabited Upper Egypt or See also:Ethiopia. This was the basis on which Dupuis established his mythological See also:system, and endeavoured to explain fabulous See also:history and the whole system of the theogony and theology of the ancients. Dupuis published several detached parts of his system in the See also:Journal See also:des savants for 1777 and 1781. These he afterwards collected and published, first in Lalande's See also:Astronomy, and then in a See also:separate See also:volume in 4to, 1781, under the See also:title of Memoire sur l'origine des constellations et sur l'explication de la See also:fable See also:par l'astronomie. The theory propounded in this memoir was refuted by J. S. See also:Bailly in his Histoire de l'astronomie, but, at the same time, with a just See also:acknowledgment of, the erudition and ingenuity exhibited by the author.
See also:Condorcet proposed Dupuis to See also:Frederick the See also:Great of See also:Prussia as a See also:fit See also:person to succeed Thiebault in the professorship of literature at See also:Berlin; and Dupuis had accepted the invitation„ when the See also:death of the See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king cancelled the engagement. The See also:chair, of humanity in the College of See also:France having at the same time become vacant, it was conferred on Dupuis; and in 1788 he became a member of the See also:Academy of See also:Inscriptions. He now resigned his professorship at Lisieux, and was appointed by the administrators of the See also:department of See also:Paris one of the four commissioners of public instruction. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary troubles Dupuis sought safety at See also:Evreux; and, having been chosen a member of the See also:National See also:Convention by the department of See also:Seine-et-See also:Oise, he distinguished himself by his moderation. In the third See also:year of the See also:republic he was elected secretary to the See also:Assembly, and in the See also:fourth he was chosen amember of the See also:Council of Five See also:Hundred. After See also:Bonaparte's coupd'etat of the 18th See also:Brumaire he was elected by the department of Seine-et-Oise a member of the Legislative See also:Body, of which he became the See also:president. He was proposed as a See also:candidate for the See also:senate, but resolved to abandon politics, devoting himself during the See also:rest of his See also:life to his favourite studies.
In 1795 he published the See also:work by which,he is best known, en-titled Origine de toes See also:les cultes, ou la See also:religion universe/le (3 vols. 4to, with an See also:atlas, or 12 vols. 12mo). This work, of which an edition revised by P. R. Auguis was published in 1822 (loth ed., 1835-1836), became the subject of much See also:bitter controversy, and the theory it propounded as to the origin of See also:mythology in Upper Egypt led to the expedition organized by See also:Napoleon for the exploration of that country. In 1798 Dupuis published an abridgment of his work in one volume 8vo, which met with no better success than the See also:original. Another abridgment of the same work, executed upon a much more methodical See also:plan, was published by M. de See also:Tracy. The other See also:works of Dupuis consist of two See also:memoirs on the Pelasgi, inserted in the Memoirs of the See also:Institute; a memoir " On the Zodiac of Tentyra," published in the Revue philosophique for May 18o6; and a Memoire explicatif du zodiaque chronologique et mythologique, published the same year, • in one volume 4to.
End of Article: DUPUIS, CHARLES FRANCOIS (1742-1809)
Additional information and Comments
There are no comments yet for this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.
|
del.icio.us it!