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SULLY, THOMAS (1783—1872)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 59 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SULLY, See also:THOMAS (1783—1872) , See also:American artist, was See also:born at Horncastle, See also:England, on the 8th of See also:June 1783. His parents, who were actors, took him to See also:America when he was nine years old, settling at See also:Charleston, See also:South Carolina, and he was first instructed in See also:art by a See also:French See also:miniature painter. Afterwards he was a See also:pupil of See also:Gilbert See also:Stuart in See also:Boston, and in 1809 he went to See also:London and entered the studio. of See also:Benjamin See also:West. He returned in 1810, and made See also:Philadelphia his See also:home, but in 1837 again visited London, where he painted a full length portrait of See also:Queen See also:Victoria for the St See also:George's Society of Philadelphia. Sully was one of the best of the See also:early American painters. He died in Philadelphia on the 5th of See also:November 1872. Among his portraits are those of See also:Commodore See also:Decatur (See also:City See also:Hall, New See also:York); the actor George See also:Frederick See also:Cooke, as See also:Richard III. (See also:Pennsylvania See also:Academy of the See also:Fine Arts, Philadephia); See also:Lafayette (See also:Independence Hall); Thomas See also:Jefferson (U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York); See also:Charles and Frances See also:Anne See also:Kemble, and Reverdy See also:Johnson. His son See also:ALFRED SULLY (1821—1879) an officer in the See also:United States See also:army, was a See also:brigade-See also:commander in the Army of the See also:Potomac in 1862-63, and after. I863 commanded the See also:department of Dakota and conducted several See also:campaigns against hostile See also:Indians in the See also:north-west. In 1865 he was breveted brigadier-See also:general in the See also:regular army and See also:major- general of See also:volunteers.

SULLY-PRUDHOMME, RENE See also:

FRANCOIS ARMAND PRUDHOMME (1839-1907), French poet, was born in See also:Paris on the 16th of See also:March 1839. He was educated at the Lycee See also:Bonaparte, where after a See also:time he took his degree as Bachelier es Sciences. An attack of ophthalmia then interrupted his studies and necessitated an entire See also:change in the course of his career. The scientific See also:habit of mind, however, which he had derived from these years of technical study never See also:left him; and it is in the See also:combination of this scientific See also:bent, with a soul aspiring towards what lies above and beyond See also:science, and a See also:conscience perpetually in agitation, that the striking originality of Sully-Prudhomme's See also:character is to be found. He found employment for a time in the See also:Schneider factory at Creuzot, but he soon abandoned an occupation to which he was eminently unsuited. He subsequently decided to read See also:law, and entered a See also:notary's See also:office at Paris. It was during this See also:period that he composed those early poems which were not See also:long in acquiring celebrity among an ever-widening circle of See also:friends. In 1865 he published his first See also:volume of poems, which had for sub-See also:title Stances et poetises. This volume was favourably reviewed by Sainte-Beuve, to whose See also:notice it had been brcught by Gaston Paris. It was at this moment that the small circle of which Leconte de See also:Lisle was the centre were preparing the Parnasse, to which Sully-Prudhomme contributed several pieces. In 1866 Lemerre published a new edition of the Stances et poemes and a collection of sonnets entitled See also:Les Epreuves (1866). From this time forward Sully-Prudhomme devoted his See also:life entirely to See also:poetry.

It was in the volume of Les Epreuves that the See also:

note of See also:melancholy which was to dominate through the whole See also:work of his life was first clearly discernible. In 1869 he published a See also:translation of the first See also:book of See also:Lucretius with a See also:preface, and Les Solitudes. In 1870 a See also:series of domestic bereavements and a serious paralytic illness resulting from the See also:strain and fatigue of the See also:winter of 1870, during which he served in the Garde See also:Mobile, shattered his See also:health. In 1872 he published Les Ecuries.d'augias, Croquis ilalicus, Impressions de la guerre (1866-72) and Les Deslins, La Resnite See also:des heurs in 1874, in 1875 Les Vaines tendresses, in 1878 La See also:Justice, in 1886 Le See also:Prime, and in 1888 Le See also:Bonheur. All these poems were collected and republished under the title of Poesics, occupying four volumes of his Qiuvres (6 vols., 1883-19o4). After the publication of Le Bonheur he practically ceased to produce See also:verse, and devoted himself almost entirely to See also:philosophy. He published two volumes of See also:prose See also:criticism L'expression clans les See also:beaux arts (1884) and Reflexions sur fart des vers (1892). Various monographs by him appeared from time to time in the philosophical reviews, and among them a remarkable series of essays (Revue des deux mondes, Oct. 15th, Nov. 15th, 1890) on See also:Pascal, and a vaivable study on the " Psychologie du libre arbitre " in the Revue de See also:meta physique ct de morale (1906). He was elected to the Academy on the 8th of See also:December 1881. On the loth of December .1901 he was awarded the See also:Nobel See also:prize for literature, and devoted most of the See also:money to the See also:foundation of a prize for poetry to be awarded by the.

Societe de gens delettres. He was one of the earliest champions of See also:

Captain See also:Dreyfus. In 1902 he wrote, in collaboration with Charles Richet, Le Probleme des causes finales. During his later years he lived at Chatenay in See also:great See also:isolation, a victim of perpetual See also:ill-health, and mainly occupied with his Vraie See also:religion See also:sedan Pascal (1905). He had been partially paralysed for some time when he died suddenly on the 6th of See also:September 1907. He left a volume of unpublished verse and a prose work, Le See also:Lien social, which was a revision of an introduction which he had contributed to See also:Michelet's La See also:Bible de t'humanite. What strikes the reader of Sully-Prudhomme's poetry first and foremost is the fact that he is a thinker; and moreover a poet who thinks, and not a thinker who turns to See also:rhyme for recreation. The most strikingly See also:original portion of his work is to be found in his philosophic and scientific poetry. If he has not the scientific See also:genius of Pascal, he has at least the scientific habit of mind and a delight in mathematic certainties. In attempting to interpret the universe as science reveals it to us he has created a new See also:form of poetry which is not lacking in a certain grandeur. One of his most beautiful poems, L'Ideal " (Stances et poemes), is inspired by the thought, which is due to scientific calculations, of stars so remote from our See also:planet that their See also:light has been on its way to us since thousands of centuries and will one See also:day be visible to the eyes of a future See also:generation. The second See also:chief characteristic of Sully-Prudhomme's poetry is the extreme sensibility of soul, the profoundly melancholy note which we find- in his love lyrics and his meditations.

Sully-Prudhomme is above all things introspective; he penetrates into the hidden corners of his See also:

heart; he See also:lays See also:bare the subtle torments of his conscience, the shifting currents of his hopes and fears, belief and disbelief in See also:face of the riddle of the universe to an extent so poignant as to be sometimes almost painful. And to render the fugitive phases and tremulous adventures of his spirit he finds incomparably delicate shades of expression, an exquisite and sensitive diction. We are struck in See also:reading his poems by the See also:nobility of his ideas, by a religious See also:elevation like that of Pascal; for there is in his work something both of Lucretius and of Pascal. Yet hey is far from being either an Epicurean or a Jansenist; he is rather a Stoic to whom the deceptions of life have brought pity instead of bitterness. As an artist Sully-Prudhomme is remarkable for the entire See also:absence of oratorical effect; for the extreme simplicity and fastidious precision of his diction. Other poets have been endowed with a more glowing See also:imagination; his poetry is neither exuberant in See also:colour nor See also:rich in sonorous harmonies of rhyme. The See also:grace of his verse is a grace of outline and not of colour, his See also:melody one of subtle See also:rhythm; his verse is as if carved in See also:ivory, his See also:music like that of a perfect unison of stringed See also:instruments. His imagination is inseparable from his ideas, and this is the See also:reason of the extraordinary perspicuity of his poetic See also:style. He extends poetry to two extreme limits; on the one See also:hand to the borderland of the unreal and the dreamlike, as in a poem such as " Le See also:Rendezvous " ( Vaines tendresses), in which he seems to See also:express the inexpressible in precise See also:language; on the other hand, in his scientific poems he encroaches on the See also:province of prose. His poetry is plastic in the creation of forms which fittingly express his fugitive emotions and his elevated ideas. Both by the See also:charm of his pure and perfect phrase, by his consummate art, and the dignity which informs all his work, Sully-Prudhomme deserves See also:rank among the foremost of See also:modern poets. (E.

G.) See C. Herron, La Philosophie de Sully-Prudhomme (1907), Sully-Prudhomme by E. Zyromski (Paris 1907).

End of Article: SULLY, THOMAS (1783—1872)

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