RUGE, ARNOLD

   a German philosophical and political writer, born at Bergen (Rügen); showed a philosophic bent at Jena; was implicated in the political schemes of the BURSCHENSCHAFT (q.v.), and was imprisoned for six years; taught for some years in Halle University, but got into trouble through the radical tone of his writings in the Halle Review (founded by himself and another), and went to Paris; was prominent during the political agitation of 1848, and subsequently sought refuge in London, where for a short time he acted in consort with Mazzini and others; retired to Brighton, and ultimately received a pension from the Prussian Government; his numerous plays, novels, translations, &c., including a lengthy autobiography, reveal a mind scarcely gifted enough to grasp firmly and deeply the complicated problems of sociology and politics; is characterised by Dr. Stirling as the "bold and brilliant Ruge"; began, he says, as an expounder of Hegel, and "finished off as translator into German of that 'hollow make-believe of windy conceit,' he calls it, Buckle's 'Civilisation in England'" (1802-1880).