A PHILOSOPHER'S RELIGION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3179, 6 September 1881, Page 4

A PHILOSOPHER'S RELIGION.

M. Littre, the celebrated French philosopher, who died recently, received the sacraments of the church as he lay speechlees but apparently conscious, and is added to the number of those who in the hour and article of death are supposed to have embraced a faith against which, when in the full vigor of their powers, they have never ceased to protest. The religious and philosophical testament which M. I ittre publishei "for the last time" in the Philosophic Positive only a year ago affords, observes the Pall Mall Gazette, a somewhat striking contrast to the avowal which, as M. Soberer remarks in the Temps, has been " snatched from or dictated to the enfeebled senses of a dying man." M. Littre replying, as he said " for the last time,' to somo who, with affectionate solitude had concerned themselves about his eternal welfare, wrote as follows :— Some pious souls have troubled themselves about my conscience. It has seemed to them that, not being an absolute contemner of Christianity, and heartily acknowledging that it possessed grandeur and conferred blessings, there were chords in my heart that it might touch. It was a beginning of faith, they thought, to entertain neither hostility nor contempt for a faith which has reigned for many centuries over men's consciences, and which, even now, is tbe consolation of so many faithful souls. I never experienced nor expresse 1 repulsion or uneasiness in finding myself the subject of the feelings that I have just sketched, and as age and illness warned me of my approaching end —as they have never abandoned the hope that I might experience the sovereign effect of Divine grace, nor ceased to appeal from the mature man too proud of his strength to the old man henceforth accessible to the promptings of his weakness — I reply to these solicitations without wishing to wound their feelings, by saying that 1 neither share their faith nor experience any misery at being unable to believe. I have questioned myself in vain. It is impossible for me to accept the conception of the world which Catholicism imposes upon its true believers ; but I feel no regret at being outside these creeds, and I can feel within me no desire to enter within their pale. The theological firmament has disappeai-ed, snd that of science has appeared in its place. The two have nothing in common. The change has occasioned great anguish in many minds. It ia true tbat a considerable mass remain faithful to their ancient tradition. It is true also that in the moral suffering which followed, many renounced the new doctrines and returned within the theological pale. However it may be -with the movement hither and thither of individuals, which is too personal in character to furnish a basis for criticism, two preponderating facts continue to exercise an abiding social influence. The first is the perpetual encroachment of the laity, that is to say, the State, which is neutral between religions, tolerant of all forms of worship, and compels the church to obey it on that capital point. The second is the continual confirmation which the scientific theory of tho universe receives from all those discoveries of our time from whioh the theological conception gains nothing to support its tottering fabric.