Follen Charles Theodore Christian, Lld

Follen Charles Theodore Christian, Ll.D., a Unitarian minister, was born at Romrod, Hesse Darmstadt, September 4, 1796. He was educated at the Gymnasium and University of Giessen, which last he entered in 1813. After the battle of Leipsic he entered the army as a volunteer against the domination of Napoleon. In 1815 he returned to the university, and received his degree of doctor of laws in 1817. In 1819 he. lectured on the Pandects and the Roman law in Jena; but he had incurred the hatred of the government for his advocacy of freedom, and in 1820 he retired to Switzerland. In 1821 he was appointed lecturer at the University of Basle but in 1824 the governments of Russia, Prussia, and Austria demanded his surrender as a political prisoner. He was advised to depart, and, after various adventures and escapes, reached New York January 12, 1825. He was soon after appointed professor of German at Harvard, and in 1828 was made professor of Church History in the theological school at Cambridge. He engaged at an early period with all his heart in the American and slavery movement, a course which alienated some of his friends, and hindered his advancement. He finally became pastor of a Unitarian church in East Lexington, Mass. On the night of January 13, 1840, he perished in the burnings of the steamer Lexington in Long Island Sound. He was a thorough scholar, and a man of the purest principles, and of courageous devotion to them. His writings were published after his death by his widow, under the title, The Works of Charles ,Follen, with/ a Memoir of his Life (Bost. 1841, 5 volumes, 12mo). — Christian Examiner, 1842, page 33; Sprague, Unitar. Pulpit, page 538.