Ballanche

Ballanche, PIERRE SIMON, a French philosopher, was born at Lyons, 4th August 1776, and settled at Paris in 1814, having attracted some notice by his essays and a prize poem, Antigone. His great work is the Palingénésie Sociale (1828), in which he seeks to illustrate the workings of God in history, and sketch how human society may and will be reconstructed so as to attain to its highest development. His works are a strange mixture of mysticism, socialism, and the philosophy of history. His Vision d'Hébal (1832) is a prophetic forecast of the world's history, Hébal being a second-sighted chief of a Scottish clan. Ballanche, who was a member of the Academy, died 12th June 1847. See his Life by Ampère (1848).