133 



ROGET, PETER MARK. 



ROLAND, MANON. 



134 



the peculiar connection in which he stood, in virtue both of his lon- 

 gevity and his social position and habits, with the miscellaneous 

 phenomena, and especially with the art and literature of his time. His 

 poetry is of the highly finished and tasteful rather than the powerful 

 kind. " We have in his works," says a critic, " a classic and graceful 

 beauty; no slovenly or obscure lines; fine cabinet pictures of soft and 

 mellow lustre, and occasionally trains of thought and association that 

 awaken or recall tender and heroic^ feelings." His relations to his time 

 were less those of active influence than those of shrewd observation 

 and interesting reminiscence. They are best exhibited in the volume 

 of hia ' Table Talk,' published, since his death, by his friend Mr. Dyce. 



* ROGET, PETER MARK, an eminent physician and physiologist. 

 He graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1798, and practised in 

 Manchester, where he obtained the appointment of Physician to the 

 Infirmary, Lunatic Asylum, and Fever Hospital. He subsequently 

 came to London, where he became known for his scientific taste, and 

 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was afterwards made 

 Secretary to the Royal Society, an office which he held for many 

 years. On the foundation of the University of London, he was ap- 

 pointed, a member of the Senate, and was for some years one of the 

 examiners in physiology. He was early elected one of the Fullerian 

 Lecturers on Physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He 

 was the writer of one of the Bridgwater treatises, under the title 

 ' Animal and Vegetable .Physiology.' This work was published in 1834. 

 He has contributed extensively to the general scientific literature of 

 the day. The treatises on ' Electricity ' and ' Magnetism,' in the 

 Library of Useful Knowledge, were from his pen. He contributed the 

 article on the Deaf and Dumb to the ' Encylopsodia Britannica,' and 

 the articles ' Age ' and ' Asphyxia ' to the ' Cyclopaedia of Practical 

 Medicine.' In 1838 he published a ' Treatise on Physiology and Phre- 

 nology.' In 1833 he delivered the Gulstonian Lectures at the Royal 

 College of Physicians, which were published in the ' Medical Gazette.' 

 Besides these larger works, he has published many papers on medical 

 and scientific subjects in the ' Transactions of the Medico-Chirurgical 

 Society,' in the ' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,' in the 

 'Proceedings of the Royal Institution,' and other publications. 



Dr. Roget is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and Con- 

 sulting Physician to the Queen Charlotte Lying-in Hospital, and the 

 Northern Dispensary. He is also a Fellow of the Astronomical, 

 Geological, Zoological, and Entomological Societies. 



ROHAULT, JAMES, was the son of a merchant at Amiens, where 

 lie was born in 1620. He received the rudiments of a scientific edu- 

 cation in that city, and was afterwards sent to Paris for the purpose 

 of prosecuting his studies in philosophy. 



In that age the physical works of Aristotle had begun to give place 

 to those of Descartes, and most of the learned men in France received 

 with complacency the explanation of the phenomena of Nature which 

 were given in the ' Principia,' the ' Dioptrice,' and the ' Meteora ' of 

 their illustrious countryman. Rohault was one of those who diligently 

 studied the writings of the Greek philosopher and of his numerous 

 commentators, but who also applied himself with ardour to the pro- 

 ductions of the new school, of which he professed to be a zealous 

 disciple. This circumstance appears to have brought him to the notice 

 of Clarselier, who, being himself a warm Cartesian, conceived so great 

 a regard for the young philosopher, that he gave him his daughter in 

 marriage, and engaged him to write a commentary on the works of the 

 man who was the object of their common admiration. Rohault seems 

 to have executed the task assigned to him in a manner which gratified 

 the wishes of his patron and father-in-law, and in the spirit of an 

 enthusiastic follower; for in the preface to his 'Traite" de Physique' 

 he designates Descartes as a man who, by his works, had shown that 

 France was capable of forming philosophers as illustrious as those of 

 ancient Greece. This work was translated into Latin by Dr. Samuel 

 Clarke, and published with notes, in. which are given explanations of 

 the principal phenomena agreeably to the philosophy of Newton, 

 which, in a very few years, had entirely supplanted that of the French 

 school. 



After the above-mentioned work was finished, Rohault appears to 

 have been occupied for several years in giving instructions in mathe- 

 matics, and the subjects of his lessons were published after his death 

 in two volumes. The course comprehends geometry, both plane and 

 practical ; trigonometry, plane and spherical ; fortification, mechanics, 

 perspective, and arithmetic. 



Besides the ' Traite" de Physique," Rohault published also a work 

 entitled ' Entretiens sur la Philosophic,' consisting of a series of 

 dialogues, in which the subjects are treated according to the Cartesian 

 principles. He died in 1675. 



ROLAND, MANON. MANON PHILIPON, for such was her maiden 

 name, was born in Paris in 1756. Her father was an artist of moderate 

 talent ; her mother was a woman of superior understanding and of a sin- 

 gularly amiable temper. Manon learned to read so early and so easily 

 as not to be able to recollect the process ; and, having once learned to 

 read, she read everything that came in her way. In her father's house 

 she enjoyed to a certain extent the means of cultivating painting, 

 music, and general literature. Whilst yet a girl she was, at her own 

 earnest request, placed for one year in a conventual school. At this 

 age her religious enthusiasm was extreme ; in after-years it subsided, 

 and her opinions, she confesses, went through every change until they 



rested in scepticism a result in some degree due to her course of 

 reading. Her reading, under her father's roof, was in fact of a most 

 miscellaneous description. The works of the fathers and the freo 

 writings of the 17th and 18th centuries were equally accessible to her, 

 and perused with equal avidity ; but the most powerful and lasting 

 impression was made on her by an early familiarity with Plutarch's 

 ' Lives of Illustrious Men.' From this time Greece and Rome were 

 constantly present to her thoughts, and when she was fourteen years 

 old she is said to have wept to think that she was not a Roman or a 

 Spartan woman. 



At the age of five-and-twenty she became the wife of M. Roland, a 

 man twenty years her senior, of laborious habits, great ability and 

 integrity, and manners described as of antique severity. A daughter 

 was the fruit of this marriage, and Madame Roland's time became 

 divided between the care of her child's education and giving assistance 

 to her husband, from whose knowledge she derived great advantage in 

 return. He held the office of Inspector of Manufactures, of which ho 

 fulfilled the duties in a liberal spirit, well according with the previous 

 impressions of his enthusiastic partner. With him Madame Roland 

 visited England, Switzerland, and other countries of Europe, every- 

 where industriously inquiring into the nature of the civil institutions, 

 and manifesting the warmest sympathy with the advocates of political 

 liberty. On witnessing the comforts enjoyed by the Engli-b. cottagers, 

 she is said to have observed, that in this country a handful of wealth 

 did not constitute the nation, but that man, whatever his station, was 

 reckoned as something. 



The intense interest with which such a woman regarded the first 

 movements of liberty in her own country, may easily be conceived. 

 Her husband being appointed to represent the city of Lyon in the 

 National Convention, left his residence near that city, and, accompanied 

 by his wife, proceeded to Paris, where the curiosity of Madame Roland 

 was gratified, and her zeal, if possible, increased, by the opportunity 

 of observing some of the most distinguished actors on the political 

 stage as Mirabeau, Cazale's, Maury, Barnave, and others of less note. 

 To the cause espoused by these notable persons Madame Roland 

 and her husband were warmly attached; and, during the ministry 

 of the party of the Gironde, Roland was appointed minister of 

 the interior, for which his information, his assiduity, and his strict 

 probity highly qualified him. It was, whilst holding this office, that 

 he appeared at court with a round hat and strings to his shoes ; and 

 was regarded by the courtiers as a symbol of a monarchy about to fall. 

 His sincere language was as unwelcome to the court as his plain attire 

 was displeasing to the courtiers. The talents of his wife were at this 

 time applied to assist him in the composition of public papers. With- 

 out pretending to direct him, she avows her belief that by mingling 

 with the severer accents of patriotism the expressions and feelings of 

 a woman of sensibility, she rendered these documents more impressive 

 and effectual. The famous letter of M. Roland to Louis XVI. (May, 

 1792) was drawn up by her : a letter designated, according to the poli- 

 tical feelings of the readers, as an enlightened although a severe 

 remonstrance, or as audacious and full of evil prophecy. This pro- 

 duction occasioned M. Roland's dismissal by the court ; for which he 

 was compensated by the warm applauses of the Convention. He again 

 became a minister after the events of the 10th of August; but his 

 party had then passed the bounds prescribed by his judgment, and 

 entered upon extremes repugnant to his high-minded and generous 

 wife. Still they were apparently favoured by their party, to whom 

 Roland's character and popularity were necessary. Amidst the real 

 and affected grossness of dress, manners, and language of the republi- 

 cans, society preserved its respectability in the circle assembled round 

 the table of the minister of the interior. 



The events of the rsign of terror do not require to be detailed. 

 The frightful massacres in the prisons of Paris on the 2nd and 3rd of 

 September, were boldly denounced by Roland in his capacity as 

 minister ; but the Convention, which applauded him, wanted courage, 

 or virtue, or power to act upon his advice ; and from that hour his 

 own doom and that of his wife became only more certain. Madame 

 Roland had herself been already arraigned before that assembly, on 

 an absurd charge of treasonable correspondence with England ; and 

 by her presence of mind, her acuteness, and her wit, had baffled and 

 mortified her accusers. The recollection of this defeat is said to have 

 so haunted the minds of Marat, Danton, and Robespierre, that in 

 every subsequent difficulty and in every attack made upon their pro- 

 ceedings, they imagined they recognised the boldness, sagacity, or 

 sarcasm of Madame Roland. She and her husband began to receive 

 warnings of their danger, and for a short time consented to take the 

 precaution of not sleeping at the Hotel of the Interior. The appear- 

 ance of deception was little agreeable to Madame Roland. "I am 

 ashamed," she said, on an occasion on which she had almost consented 

 to leave her house in the dress of a peasant, " of the part I am made 

 to play. I will neither disguise myself nor leave the house. If they 

 wish to assassinate me, it shall be in my own home. This courageous 

 example is due from me, and I will afford it." Her husband quitted 

 Paris, and she might have done so, but she declared that the care of 

 evading injustice cost her more than it would do to suffer from it. 



The time arrived when the intellectual superiority hitherto main- 

 tained in the Convention by M. Roland's party, or the Girondists, 

 was overcome by absolute force. Forty thousand men were marched 



