LITTEJS, DUMAS, PASTEUR, AND TAIXE. 669 



creation indicated the existence of powers infinitely beyond it, and 

 that the utmost advance in scientific knowledge only brought us to 

 the verge of an incalculable horizon. The discourse in answer to M. 

 Pasteur was delivered by M. Renan, but it proved to be a feeble and 

 disjointed effort of French incredulity, without its wit. So that the 

 cause of skepticism and negation was on these occasions upheld by the 

 men of letters, inquirers into the origin of language and the phenom- 

 ena of history, while the cause of belief in an infinite and supernatural 

 power was defended by the men of science, whose lives have been de- 

 voted to the study of the natural world and to demonstration by the 

 experience of the senses. The contrast was striking, and we think our 

 readers may follow it with interest. 



But, before we proceed to that part of our subject, we must pause 

 to pay a tribute of respect, unhappily too long delayed, to the memory 

 of the most remarkable of these eminent persons. There are other 

 experimentalists, there are many historians, but M. Littre stands alone 

 as the greatest of lexicographers, and the literary work accomplished 

 by his almost unassisted labor was literally stupendous. We can use 

 n$ other term. The character of the great " Dictionary of the French 

 Language," to which he devoted thirty years of unremitting toil, is best 

 described by its elaborate title-page. The mere material bulk of the 

 work, which was published in four thick quarto volumes, is astonishing. 

 The manuscript (without the supplement) covered 415,636 pages. The 

 proof-sheets were 2,242. If the " Dictionary " had been set up in a 

 single column of type, it would have extended over 37,325 metres, or 

 about twenty-seven miles. The work was first projected in 1841, when 

 M. Littre had already passed the fortieth year of his life ; it was not 

 till 1846 that the contract was signed with M. Hachette, whose liberal 

 support was indispensable to the author. From that time forth the col- 

 lection of authorities and materials, and the art of classification, which 

 was the result of numerous experiments (some of them being abortive), 

 occupied about thirteen years. Several persons were employed to 

 read and extract, with a precise reference, passages from the whole 

 body of the French classical writers from the sixteenth to the nine- 

 teenth century ; to which M. Littre added, from his accurate knowl- 

 edge of the old French chronicles and poets, a multitude of curious 

 archaic examples from the thirteenth century downward. The arrange- 

 ment of this enormous mass of materials seems to have been entirely 

 done, by M. Littre himself. The work of printing began in September, 

 1859, and was completed in July, 18T2. Every proof passed under 

 the eyes of four careful correctors, besides the printer's reader, and 

 the final revision of the author. It took about two months to carry 

 a sheet through the press. In the course of this vast operation 292 

 quarto pages of three columns each were added to the proofs. Twice 

 the composition and execution of the work were interrupted by a revo- 

 lution and a war ; but, by assiduous efforts, M. Littre always kept 



