Symes (Joseph), English lecturer and writer, b. Portland, 29 Jan. 1841, of pious Methodist parents. In '64 he offered himself as candidate for the ministry, and was sent to the Wesleyan College, Richmond, and in '67 went on circuit as preacher. Having come to doubt orthodoxy, he resigned in '72, preached his first open Freethought lecture at Newcastle, 17 Dec. '76. Had several debates, wrote Philosophic Atheism, Man's Place in Nature, Hospitals not of Christian Origin, Christianity a Persecuting Religion, Blows at the Bible, etc. He contributed to the Freethinker, and was ready to conduct it during Mr. Foote's imprisonment. He went to Melbourne, Dec. '83, and there established the Liberator, and has written Life and Death of My Religion, '84; Christianity and Slavery, Phallic Worship, etc. Symonds (John Addington), English poet and author, b. Bristol, 5 Oct. 1840, educated at Harrow and Oxford, and was elected in '62 to a Fellowship at Magdalen College, which he vacated on his marriage. His chief work is on the Renaissance in Italy, 7 vols., completed in '86. He has also written critical sketches, studies, and poems. Ill health compels his living abroad. Taine (Hippolyte Adolphe), D.C.L., brilliant French man of letters, b. Vouziers, 21 April, 1828. Educated at the College Bourbon (now the Condorcet 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. Talandier (Alfred), French publicist, b. Limoges, 7 Sept. 1828. After entering the bar, he became a socialist and took part in the revolution of '48. Proscribed after 12 Dec. he came to England, started trades unions and co-operation, translated Smiles's Self-Help, and wrote in the National Reformer. Returned to Paris in '70 and became professor at the Lycée Henri IV. In '74 he was deprived of his chair, but elected on the Municipal council of Paris, and two years later chosen as deputy, and was re-elected in '81. In '83 he published a Popular Rabelais and has written in Our Corner on that great Freethinker. Taubert (A.), the maiden name of Dr. Hartmann's first wife. She wrote The Pessimists and their Opponents, 1873. Taule (Ferdinand), M.D., of Strassburg, author of Notions on the Nature and Properties of Organised Matter. Paris, 1866.