celestist

Someone who plays the celeste.

— Wiktionary

Delphine

a novel by Mme. de Staël; presumed to be an idealised picture of herself.

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Delaunay, Le Vicomte

the nom de plume of Mme. Delphine, under which she published her "Parisian Letters."

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Caylus, Marquise de

born in Poitou, related to Mme. de Maintenon; left piquant souvenirs of the court of Louis XIV. and the house of St. Cyr (1672-1729).

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Fitzgerald, Lady

a daughter of Egalité and Mme. Genlis, called Pamela; distinguished for her beauty and enthusiasm for liberty, and who became the wife of Lord Fitzgerald, the Irish patriot (q. v.); d. 1831.

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Coppet

a Swiss village in the Canton de Vaud, on the Lake of Geneva; celebrated as the abode of Mme. de Staël, her burial-place and that of Necker, her father.

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Aiguillon, Duke d'

corrupt minister of France, previously under trial for official plunder of money, which was quashed, at the corrupt court of Louis XV., and the tool of Mme. Du Barry, with whom he rose and fell (1720-1782).

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

D'Aubigné, Theodore Agrippa

a historian, bred to the military profession; held appointments under Henry IV., on whose assassination he returned to Geneva, where he wrote his "Histoire Universelle," which had the honour to be burned by the common hangman in Paris; was a satirical writer; grandfather to Mme. de Maintenon (1550-1630).

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Corinne

the heroine and title of a novel of Mme. de Staël's, her principal novel, in which she celebrates the praises of the great men and great masterpieces of Italy; her heroine is the type of a woman inspired with poetic ideas and the most generous sentiments.

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Choiseul, Duc de

minister of Louis XV.; served his master in various capacities; was rewarded with a peerage; effected many reforms in the army, strengthened the navy, and aided in bringing about the family compact of the Bourbons; exercised a great influence on the politics of Europe; was nicknamed by Catharine of Russia Le Cocher de l'Europe, "the Driver of Europe"; but becoming obnoxious to Mme. du Barry, "in whom he would discern nothing but a wonderfully dizened scarlet woman," was dismissed from the helm of affairs, Louis's "last substantial man" (1719-1795).

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Constant de Rebecque, Henry Benjamin de

a French politician, of liberal constitutional principles, born at Lausanne, of Huguenot parents; settled in Paris at the commencement of the Revolution, where he distinguished himself by his political writings and speeches; was expelled from France in 1802, along with Mme. de Staël, for denouncing the military ascendency of Napoleon; lived for a time at Weimar in the society of Goethe and Schiller; translated Schiller's "Wallenstein"; returned to France in 1814; declared for the Bourbons, and pled in favour of constitutional liberty; he was a supporter of Louis Philippe, and a rationalist in religion, and declared himself opposed to the supernatural element in all religions (1760-1830).

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Necker, Jacques

celebrated financier, born at Geneva, banker in Paris; married the accomplished Susanne Curchod, the rejected of Gibbon, and became by her the father of Mme. de Staël; was a man of high repute for probity and business capacity; became in 1777 Director-General of Finance in France, tried hard and honestly, by borrowing and retrenchment, to restore the fallen public credit, but was after five years dismissed; was recalled in 1788, but though the funds rose, and he contributed to their relief two million livres of his own money, was again dismissed, to be once more recalled, only to expose his inability to cope with the crisis and to be forced to retire (1732-1804).

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Theosophy

a mystic philosophy of very difficult definition which hails from the East, and was introduced among us by Madame Blavatsky, a Russian lady, who was initiated into its mysteries in Thibet by a fraternity there who professed to be the sole custodiers of its secrets as the spiritual successors of those to whom it was at first revealed. The radical idea of the system appears to be reincarnation, and the return of the spirit to itself by a succession of incarnations, each one of which raises it to a higher level until, by seven stages it would seem, the process is complete, matter has become spirit, and spirit matter, God has become man, and man God, agreeably somewhat to the doctrine of Amiel, that "the complete spiritualisation of the animal element in us is the task of our race," though with them it seems rather to mean its extinction. The adherents of this system, with their head-quarters at Madras, are numerous and wide-scattered, and form an organisation of 300 branches, having three definite aims: (1) To establish a brotherhood over the world irrespective of race, creed, caste, or sex; (2) to encourage the study of comparative philosophy, religion, and science; and (3) to investigate the occult secrets of nature and the latent possibilities of man. The principal books in exposition of it are, "The Secret Doctrine," "Isis Unveiled," "The Key to Theosophy," by Mme. Blavatsky; "Esoteric Buddhism," "The Occult World," &c., by Sinnett; "The Ancient Wisdom," "The Birth and Evolution of the Soul," &c., by Annie Besant.

— The Nuttall Encyclopedia