Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/261

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LINTON


LITTRE


knew her well, that she " professed Agnos ticism with complete sincerity " (p. 202). In her earlier years she had helieved in a Providence, but this she entirely aban doned, and she was severe against Chris tianity. In the year before her death she wrote a fine Agnostic letter to a clergyman : " I see no light behind that terrible curtain. I do not think one religion better than another, and I think the Christian [reli gion] has brought far more misery, crime, and suffering, far more tyranny and evil, than any other " (p. 367). She was a frequent contributor to the Agnostic Annual. D. July 14, 1898.

LINTON, William James, engraver. B. Dec. 7, 1812. Ed. private school. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to wood-engraving, and he won the repute of being one of the most skilful engravers in London. In 1845 he edited The Illumin ated Magazine. Linton was, however, early kindled with an enthusiasm for advanced causes, and he worked with Hetberington and Watson and other Rationalists and humanitarians. For some years he printed and published The English Republic. In 1855 he lost his first wife, and in 1858 he married Eliza Lynn. [See preceding paragraph.] He migrated to the United States in 1866. He wrote many political articles, some fine poems, a Life of J. Watson (1879), and Memories (1895). Mrs. Lynn Linton tells us that " his theological creed was a large loose jumble of Christianity and Pantheism " (in Layard s Mrs. Lynn Linton, p. 95). He was, in fact, a Pantheist with an ethical esteem of Christianity. He was a stern seeker of justice, a passionate friend of every oppressed class or nation. D. Dec. 30, 1897.

LIPPERT, Julius, Austrian ethnologist. B. Apr. 12, 1839. Ed. Prague University. He entered the monastic order of the Bene dictines at Prague, but abandoned it and studied history. In 1868 he was appointed Director of the Budweis Communal School, and he founded a League for the Dissemina- 449


tion of Useful Knowledge in Bohemia. In 1874 he was elected to the Bohemian Parliament. The Catholics unseated him, but he returned later, and eventually sat in the Reichsrath. Lippert, whose many works on ethnology are important, has done much for the Rationalist enlighten ment of Bohemia. His Christenthiim, Volksglaube, und Volksbrauch (1882) and Allgemeine Geschichte des Priesterthums (2 vols., 1883-84) embody his Rationalism. His chief work is Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit (2 vols., 1886-87).

LIPPS, Professor Theodor, Ph.D.,

ffisthetist. B. July 27, 1851. Ed. Erlan- gen, Tubingen, Utrecht, and Bonn Uni versities. He became professor at Bonn in 1884, at Breslau in 1890, at Munich in 1894 ; and he is now at the Royal Bavarian Academy. Professor Lipps, who shows the influence of Hume (whose Treatise on Human Nature he edited in the German in 1895) and Kant, is a Pantheist, and believes in " a divine world-I " or world-spirit. He has written important works on aesthetics and psychology (Grund- tatsachen des Seelenlebens, 1883 ; Psycho- logische Studien, 1905, etc.).

LISCOW, Christian Ludwig, German satirist. B. Apr. 29, 1701. Ed. Rostock, Jena, and Halle Universities. He adopted Rationalist views at the university, and wrote a Rationalist pamphlet (published in 1755). He was private tutor for two years (1728-29), then secretary to the Duke of Mecklenburg (1735-40) and Count Briihl (1740-45). From 1745 to 1750 he was on the Polish Council of War. During all these years, and later, he published satires which have moved many to call him the German Swift. The essay Uber die Unno- thigkeit der guten Werke zur Seligkeit (quoted by Wheeler) is spurious, but he often satirized religion. There are bio graphies by Helbig, Lisch, Classen, and Litzmann. D. Oct. 30, 1760.

LITTRE, Maximilien Paul Emile,

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