TUENEE
TUENEE
a conspicuous figure in the Eationalistic
salons, and was one of the most widely
cultivated men of the time. His position
imposed prudence ; but he wrote various
articles for the Dictionnaire Encyclopedique,
and in 1753 he published a Lettre sur la
tolerance and Le conciliateur, which dis
pleased the clergy. From 1761 to 1774 he
was Intendant of the financial province of
Limoges. Already a convert to the Physio-
cratic School, Turgot applied their ideas
with great zeal to one of the poorest
provinces of France, and his reforms
attracted general attention. He wrote
also a number of economic works (chiefly
Reflexions sur la formation et la distribution
des richesses, 1765). His appointment as
Minister of Marine and Controller General
of Finance in 1774 was " hailed with
enthusiasm by the philosophers " ; and
every historian records the wonderful work
he did for the decaying credit of France.
His ideas were very progressive and en
lightened, though he defended the absolute
monarchy (on reformed lines). His political
and clerical enemies united, and caused his
fall in 1776. He spent the remainder of
his life in literary and scientific studies,
and in 1777 became Vice- President of the
Academy of Inscriptions. Turgot was not
only one of the greatest of French states-
men, and one of the chief founders of the
science of political economy (he had much
influence on Adam Smith and later writers),
but he was a high-minded humanitarian
with a " passion for truth and justice."
Beyond his eloquent plea for toleration he
wrote nothing on religion ; but his associa
tion with the great Parisian Eationalists
of the time was open and notorious. He
was either a Deist or Pantheist. D.
Mar. 18, 1781.
TURNER, Joseph Mallord William,
painter. B. Apr. 23, 1775. Ed. New Brentford and Margate. Turner, who was the son of a London barber, had an un happy home and little schooling circum stances which overshadowed his life. He never acquired any foreign language, and
819
his knowledge, apart from his art, was
very limited. He began in his fourteenth
year to receive lessons in drawing, and in
1789 became a student at the Eoyal
Academy. His first picture was exhibited
at the Academy in 1790, and in 1799 he
was elected Associate. By 1793 he had
a high reputation for water-colours, and he
then turned to oil-painting, soon giving
proof of his genius. He became an Aca
demician in 1802, at the early age of
twenty-eight. In 1808 he was appointed
professor of perspective at the Academy.
In 1806 his Goddess of Discord and Sun
Rising Through Vapour had made a great
impression ; but his best period opened
with Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus in 1829
and closed with his Fighting Temeraire in
1839. The Liber Studiorum was published
between 1807 and 1819. His genius led
to much controversy ; but since the cam
paign of Euskin, which began in 1843, he
has taken his place among the greatest of
British painters. Euskin constantly dwells
on the excellence of his character and his
generosity ; but the unfortunate circum
stances of his youth led to a certain
eccentricity of life which lent itself to
libel. At his death he left his pictures
to the nation, and his entire fortune
(140,000) to found a home for decayed
British artists. Euskin, who had the
greatest regard for him, often speaks of
Turner as an "infidel." His biographer,
W. Thornbury, politely regrets that in the
hour of death " he had no religious hope
to cheer him" (Life of J. M. W. Turner,
1862, ii, 275). P. G. Hamerton, in his
Life of Turner (1879), observes that Turner
" did not profess to be a member of any
visible Church " (p. 367). The truth seems
to be that Turner had not a particle of
religious belief, and rarely gave a thought
to religion. D. Dec. 19, 1851.
TURNER, Matthew, chemist. B. early eighteenth century. Nothing is known about Turner s early years. He was a surgeon in Liverpool in 1762, and he took up the subject of chemistry. It was- after 820
