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LITTRE, MAXIMILIEN PAUL SMILE (1801-1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 795 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LITTRE, MAXIMILIEN See also:PAUL SMILE (1801-1881) , See also:French lexicographer and philosopher, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 1st of See also:February 18o1. His See also:father had been a See also:gunner, and afterwards sergeant-See also:major of marine See also:artillery, in the French See also:navy, and was deeply imbued with the revolutionary ideas of the See also:day. Settling down as a See also:collector of taxes, he married Sophie Johannot, a See also:free-thinker like himself, and devoted himself to the See also:education of his son Emile. The boy was sent to the Lycee See also:Louis-le-See also:Grand, where he had for See also:friends See also:Hachette and See also:Eugene See also:Burnouf. After he had completed his course at school, he hesitated for a See also:time as to what profession he should adopt, and meanwhile made himself See also:master, not only of the See also:English and See also:German See also:languages, but of the classical and See also:Sanskrit literature and See also:philology. At last he determined to study See also:medicine, and in 1822 entered his name as a student of medicine. He passed all his See also:examinations in due course, and had only his thesis to prepare in See also:order to obtain his degree as See also:doctor when in 1827 his father died, leaving his See also:mother absolutely without resources. He at once renounced his degree, and, while attending the lectures of P. F. O. Rayer and taking a keen See also:interest in medicine, began teaching Latin and See also:Greek for a livelihood. He carried a See also:musket on the popular See also:side in the revolution of February 183o, and was one of the See also:national See also:guards who followed See also:Charles X. to See also:Rambouillet.

In 1831 he obtained an introduction to Armand See also:

Carrel, the editor of the National, who gave him the task of See also:reading the English and German papers for excerpts. Carrel by See also:chance, in 1835, discovered the ability of his reader, who from that time became a See also:constant contributor, and eventually director of the See also:paper. In 1836 Littre began to contribute articles on all sorts of subjects to the Revue See also:des deux mondes; in 1837 he married; and in 1839 appeared the first See also:volume of his edition of the See also:works of See also:Hippocrates. The value of this See also:work was recognized by his See also:election the same See also:year into the See also:Academic des See also:Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. At this See also:epoch he came across the works of Auguste See also:Comte, the reading of which formed, as he himself said, " the See also:cardinal point of his See also:life," and from this time onward appears the See also:influence of See also:positivism on his own life, and, what is of more importance, his influence on positivism, for he gave as much to positivism as he received from it. He soon became a friend of Comte, and popularized his ideas in numerous works on the positivist See also:philosophy. At the same time he continued his edition of Hippocrates, which was not completed till 1862, published a similar edition of See also:Pliny's Natural See also:History, and after 1844 took See also:Fauriel's See also:place on the See also:committee engaged on the Histoire litteraire de la See also:France, where his knowledge of the See also:early French See also:language and literature was invaluable. It was about 1844 that he started working on his See also:great Dictionnaire de la langue francaise, which was, however, not to be completed till See also:thirty years after. In the revolution of See also:July 1848 he took See also:part in the repression of the extreme republican party in See also:June 1849. His essays, contributed during this See also:period to the National, were collected together and published under the See also:title of Conservation, revolution et positivisme in 1852, and show a thorough See also:acceptance of all the doctrines propounded by Comte. However, during the later years of his master's life, he began to perceive that he could not wholly accept all the dogmas or the more mystic ideas of his friend and master, but he concealed his See also:differences of See also:opinion, and Comte failed to perceive that his See also:pupil had outgrown him, as he himself had outgrown his master See also:Saint-See also:Simon. Comte's See also:death in 1858 freed Littre from any fear of embittering his master's later years, and he published his own ideas in his Paroles de la philosophic See also:positive in 18J9, and at still greater length in his work in Auguste Comte ct la philosophic positive in 1863.

In this See also:

book he traces the origin of Comte's ideas through See also:Turgot, See also:Kant and Saint-Simon, then eulogizes Comte's own life, his method of philosophy, his great services to the cause and the effect of his works, and finally proceeds to show where he himself differs from him. He approved wholly of Comte's philosophy, his great See also:laws of society and his philosophical method, which indeed he defended warmly against J. S. See also:Mill, but declared that, while he believed in a positivist philosophy, he did not believe in a See also:religion of humanity. About 1863, after completing his Hippocrates and his Pliny, he set to work in See also:earnest on his French See also:dictionary. In the same year he was proposed for the Academic Francaise, but rejected, owing to the opposition of Mgr. See also:Dupanloup, See also:bishop of See also:Orleans, who denounced him in his Avertissement aux peres de famille as the See also:chief of the French materialists. He also at this time started with G. Wyrouboff the Philosophic Positive, a See also:review which was to embody the views of See also:modern positivists. His life was thus absorbed in See also:literary work till the overthrow of the See also:empire called on him to take a part in politics. He See also:felt himself too old to undergo the privations of the See also:siege of Paris, and retired with his See also:family to Britanny, whence he was summoned by M. See also:Gambetta to See also:Bordeaux, to lecture on history, and thence to See also:Versailles to take his seat in the See also:senate to which he had been chosen by the See also:department of the See also:Seine.

In See also:

December 1871 he was elected a member of the Academie Frangaise in spiteof the renewed opposition of Mgr. Dupanloup, who resigned his seat rather than receive him. Littre's Dictionary was completed in 1873. An authoritative See also:interpretation is given of the use of each word, based on the various meanings it had held in the past. In 1875 Littre was elected a life senator. The most notable of his productions in these years were his See also:political papers attacking and unveiling the confederacy of the See also:Orleanists and See also:legitimists, and in favour of the See also:republic, his republication of many of his old articles and books, among others the Conservation, revolution et positivisme of 1852 (which he reprinted word for word, appending a formal, categorical renunciation of many of the Comtist doctrines therein contained), and a little See also:tract Pour la derriere foist in which he maintained his unalterable belief in See also:materialism. When it became obvious that the old See also:man could not live much longer, his wife and daughter, who had always been fervent Catholics, strove to convert him to their religion. He had See also:long interviews with Pere Milleriot, a celebrated controversialist, and was much grieved at his death; but it is hardly probable he would have ever been really converted. Nevertheless, when on the point of death, his wife had him baptized, and his funeral was conducted with the See also:rites of the See also:Catholic See also:Church. He died on the 2nd of June 1881. The following are his most important works: his See also:editions of Hippocrates (1839—1861), and of Pliny's Natural History (1848—1850); his See also:translation of See also:Strauss's See also:Vie de Jesus (1839—1840), and Miiller's See also:Manuel de physiologie (1851); his edition of the works of Armand Carrel, with notes (1854—1858); the Histoire de la langue francaise, a collection of See also:magazine articles (1862); and his Dictionnaire de la langue francaise (1863—1872). In the domain of See also:science must be noted his edition, with Charles See also:Robin, of Nysten's Dictionnaire de medicine, de chirurgie, &c.

(1855); in that of philosophy, his Analyse raisonnee du See also:

tours de philosophic positive de M. A. Comte (1845); Application de la philosophic positive au gouvernement (1849); Conservation, revolution et positivisme (1852, and ed., with supplement, 1879) ; Paroles de la philosophic positive (1859); Auguste Comte et la philosophic positive (1863) ; La Science au point de vue philosophique (1873); Fragments de philosophic et de sociologic contemporaine (1876); and his most interesting See also:miscellaneous works, his Etudes et glanures (188o); La Verite sur la mort d'See also:Alexandre le grand (1865); Etudes sur See also:les barbares et le moyen dge (1867); Medecine et medecins (1871); Litterature el histoire (18i5); and Discours de reception a l'Academie francaise (1873). For his life consult C. A. Sainte-Beuve, See also:Notice sur M. Lithe, sa vie et ses travaux (1863) ; and Nouveaux Lundis, vol. v.; also the notice by M. See also:Durand-Greville in the Nouvelle Revue of See also:August 1881; E. See also:Caro, Litlre et le positivisme (1883); See also:Pasteur, Discours de reception at the See also:Academy, where he succeeded Littre, and a reply by E. See also:Renan. (H. M.

End of Article: LITTRE, MAXIMILIEN PAUL SMILE (1801-1881)

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