LITTRE, DUMAS, PASTEUR, AND TAINE. 673 



work, a translation and edition of the writings of Hippocrates, for 

 winch his medical studies had prepared him. Indeed, he continued 

 to write on medical subjects, in which he always took the strongest 

 interest. "Though I have studied medicine," he said, " without hav- 

 ing made any practical use of it, I would not exchange for anything 

 else this fraction of knowledge which I have acquired by persistent 

 labor." 



The use he did make of it was to watch over the health of his vil- 

 lage, for to a rigorous austerity of life he united the utmost tender- 

 ness of heart, and, although he wandered far from all theological belief, 

 his life was one constant example of self-denial, of consideration for 

 others, and of what might be called the religion of duty. ISTo monk 

 ever lived on simpler fare or in a humbler abode. That cottage still 

 remains in the state in which he left it, and over the table, as a visible 

 symbol of reverence and toleration, hangs a picture of our Saviour. 

 We have already related in his own language the extraordinary labor 

 in which his days and nights were spent over the Dictionary. Yet his 

 door was never closed against the visit of a friend ; he continued to 

 take part in the transactions of the branch of the Institute to which 

 he belonged ; and, yielding to the earnest solicitation of the widow of 

 Auguste Comte, he consented to write, in addition to his other work, 

 a biography of that personage. 



Born and educated upon the devastated soil of the French Revolu- 

 tion, Littre had entered upon- life without religious opinions ; indeed, 

 like the elder Mill, his father had deliberately withheld them from him. 

 But at the age of forty he read the " System of Positive Philosophy " 

 by Auguste Comte, and he thus described the impression he received 

 from it : " This book subjugated me. A conflict arose in my mind 

 between my old and my new opinions ; the latter triumphed. I be- 

 came a disciple of the Positive Philosophy, and I have remained so. 

 For the last twenty years I have been an adept of this philosophy. 

 The confidence I feel in it has never been shaken. Employed on very 

 different subjects history, language, physiology, medicine, erudition 

 I have constantly used it as a sort of tool which traces for me the 

 features, the origin, and the conclusion of each question. It suffices 

 for everything ; it never deceives me ; it always enlightens me." 

 This is the' best testimony ever borne to the value of M. Comte's phi- 

 losophy ; and it is borne by an eminent man, and that man a French- 

 man. M. Comte has had but little honor in his own country ; he was 

 detested, despised, and to some extent persecuted in France while 

 he was alive ; and, with the exception of M. Littre, we have never 

 heard that he has obtained any eminent disciple among his own coun- 

 trymen. 



From England, on the contrary, he received solid proofs of sym- 

 pathy and interest^ for he lived on an English annuity ; and since 

 his death his works have been carefully translated, and his opinions 

 vol. xxi. 43 



