Gerando Joseph Marie, Baron De

Gerando Joseph Marie, Baron De, a French statesman and philosophical writer, was born at Lyons February 29, 1772, and was educated for the priesthood. During the Revolution he served in the French army, and, under Napoleon, he filled various high civil offices. He was made a French peer in 1837 and died at Paris November 10, 1842. He is mentioned here for his, philosophical and ethical writings. Having sent an article to the French Academy in 1799, which received a prize, he enlarged it into a treatise entitled Des Signes et de l'art de penser (1800, 4 volumes, 8vo). This was followed by De la Generation des connaissances hunaines (1802, 8vo), which was crowned by the Berlin Academy. His most important work is his Histoire complete des systemes de Philosophie consideres relativement aux principes des connaissances humaines (1803, 3 volumes; 3d ed. 1847-8, 4 volumes, 8vo): — Du perfectionnement moral ou de l'education de soi-meme (1824; 1832, 2 volumes), which received the Montyon prize from the French Academy, and was translated into English and published under the title Self- Education (Boston, 1860, 12mo). De Gerando wrote many works on economical and political science. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biogr. Generale, 20:143.