GOBINEAU, JOSEPH ARTHUR, COMTE DE (1816 1882). French diplomat and man of letters, was born at Ville d'Avray, near Paris, on July 14, 1816, son of an officer of the Royal Guard. Alexis de Tocqueville (author of La Democratie en Asnerique), appointed Gobineau his chef de cabinet during his short term of office in 1848. Even after Tocqueville's fall, Go bineau persevered in his new profession, and, despite his legitimist convictions, served France loyally as a diplomat until 1877. After short sojourns in Berne and Hanover he was sent to Frankfort.
In 1854 Gobineau went to Persia for four years. Here he drank in with delight the wonders of the east, exchanged views with the leaders of learning and spiritual life, and acquired valu able knowledge. After conducting a mission to Newfoundland, he returned to Teheran in 1861. In 1864 he moved to Athens, and in 1868 to Rio de Janeiro.
During the war of 1870-71 Gobineau was in France. The last diplomatic post he held 1872-77 was Stockholm. He was forced in circumstances which wounded his pride, to retire, and left Stockholm for Rome to pass the rest of his days in writing and sculpture. He died on Oct. 13, 1882.
Gobineau was the author of large volumes on ethnology, cune iform writing, Persian history and literature, and also historical, political and philosophical essays, the history of his family, travel books, novels and short stories, a tragedy, a long epic, lyric verse, and finally The Renaissance.
His earliest, strongest, and, despite many weaknesses, most characteristic work was the Essai sur l'Inegalite des races hu maines propounding the doctrine that the different races of human-kind are innately unequal in talent, worth and abil ity to absorb and create culture, and change their innate character only through crossing with alien strains. The genius of a race depends but little on conditions of climate, surroundings and pe riod; it is therefore absurd to maintain that all men are capable of an equal degree of perfection. Only the white races are cre ative of culture, but are exhausted today because their racial composition is no longer pure. But Gobineau's masterpiece is his Renaissance (1877). This is a series of historical sketches and has been compared by the author himself to a fresco painting; it is divided into five sections, each of which is dominated by a single figure: Savonarola, Caesar Borgia, Julius II., Leo X., Michelangelo. These sketches attempt to interpret the political events of the time psychologically, and to give a living picture of the final motives and inward reality of the Renaissance by means of imaginary conversation.