The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 285

LETTERS PATENT, a doc.u.ment under seal of the government granting some special privilege to a person.

LETTRES DE CACHET (i. e. sealed letters), warrants of imprisonment, issued prior to the Revolution, sealed with the private seal of the king, in contradistinction from _lettres patentees_, which were sealed by the Great Seal of the kingdom. See CACHET, LETTRE DE.

LEUCIPPUS, a Greek philosopher of the 6th century B.C., the founder of the Atomic theory of things, of which DEMOCRITUS (q. v.) was the chief expounder.

LEUCTRA, a village in Boeotia, to the S. of Thebes, where in 371 B.C. Epaminondas and his Thebans overthrew the ascendency of Sparta.

LEUTHEN, a village in the W. of Breslau, in Silesia, where Frederick the Great defeated the Austrians with great loss in 1757.

LEVANA, the t.i.tle of a book by Jean Paul on the education of children; t.i.tle from the name of a Roman G.o.ddess, the protectress of foundlings.

LEVANT (i. e. the Rising), a name given to the E. of the Mediterranean and the regions adjoining by the western peoples of the Mediterranean.

LEVEE, a morning reception held by the sovereign or some one of high rank.

LEVELLERS, a party of violent red-hot Republicans, led on by John Lilburne, who appeared in the time of the Commonwealth, but were suppressed by Cromwell.

LEVER, CHARLES JAMES, a novelist, born at Dublin, was by profession a physician; author of a numerous series of Irish stories written in a rollicking humour, "Harry Lorrequer" and "Charles O'Malley" among the chief; was a contributor to and for some time editor of _Dublin University Magazine_; held ultimately various consular appointments abroad, and after that wrote with success in a more sober style (1806-1872).

LEVERRIER, URBAN JEAN JOSEPH, French astronomer, born at St. Lo; distinguished in chemistry before he devoted himself to astronomy; rose to eminence in the latter science by a paper on the variations in the orbits of the planets, and was led to the discovery of the planet Neptune from perturbations in the orbit of the planet Ura.n.u.s; he indicated the spot where the planet would be found, and it was actually discovered a few days after by Galle at Berlin (1811-1877).

LEVI, LEON, commercial economist, born at Ancona; settled in England and was naturalised; drew attention to the want of commercial organisation, and to whose pleading the first chamber of commerce, that of Liverpool, owes its existence; became professor of Commercial Law in King's College, London (1821-1888).

LEVIRITE LAW, a law among the Jews which ordained if a husband died without issue that his brother should take his widow to wife and raise up seed to him (Deut. xxv. 5-10).

LEVITES, a body of men divided into courses, the servants of the priests in the wors.h.i.+p of the Temple of Jerusalem; they were not permitted to enter the sanctuary or serve at the altar, their duties being limited to keeping watch over the Temple, slaying the victims, and making other preparations for the sacred services.

LEVITICAL DEGREES, relations.h.i.+ps that preclude marriage, so called as presumably fixed by the Levitical priesthood of the Jews.

LEVITICUS, the third book of the Pentateuch, so called as containing the laws and ordinances appointed to regulate the services of the sanctuary as conducted by a priesthood of the tribe of Levi, the narrative portion of it recording the consecration of Aaron and his sons, the death of Nadab and Abihu, and the stoning of the blasphemer, embracing a period of only one year, and the legislation of it no longer issuing from Mount Sinai, but from the door of the Tabernacle.

LEWALD, f.a.n.n.y, an eminent German novelist, born at Konigsberg, of Jewish parents; professed Christianity and was married to Adolf Stahr; was a realist in art and a zealous woman's rights advocate (1811-1889).

LEWES (11), the county town of Suss.e.x, finely situated on a slope of the South Downs, 10 m. NE. of Brighton; was the scene of a victory of Simon de Montfort in 1264 over the forces of Henry III.; has a trade in corn and malt, and tanneries.

LEWES, GEORGE HENRY, a versatile man of letters, born in London, the son of an actor; wrote a "Biographical History of Philosophy" from the Positivist standpoint, published originally in 1845, and a "Life of Goethe" in 1855, "Seaside Studies," "Problems of Life and Mind," &c., and edited the _Fortnightly Review_; he did much to popularise both science and philosophy; though a married man with children, formed a connection with George Eliot, and died in her house (1817-1878).

LEWIS, SIR GEORGE CORNWALL, English statesman and political philosopher, born in London; held several important posts under and in the governments of the day; wrote on "Early Roman History," "The Influence of Authority on Matters of Opinion," "The Best Form of Government," "Ancient Astronomy," &c. (1806-1863).

LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY, romancer, familiarly known as Monk Lewis from the name of his princ.i.p.al novel, the "Monk," which was written, along with others, in Mrs. Radcliffe's vein and immensely popular, and literally swarmed with ghosts and demons (1773-1818).

LEYDEN, one of the chief towns of Holland and characteristically Dutch, 15 m. NW. of The Hague, with a famous university founded by the Prince of Orange in 1576, containing the richest natural history museum in the world; it is noted for the bravery and power of endurance of its inhabitants, manifest for a whole year (1573-74) during the War of Independence.

LEYDEN, JOHN, poet and Orientalist, born in Denholm, son of a shepherd; bred for the Church, his genius and abilities attracted the notice of influential people; was introduced to Scott, and a.s.sisted him in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border"; went to India as a military surgeon; studied and prelected on the native dialects; became a judge in Calcutta; died of fever (1775-1811).

LEYDEN, JOHN OF, leader of the Anabaptists in Munster, born in The Hague; beset with his followers, who regarded him as a prophet, in Munster, he was taken alive after a siege of six months and tortured to death in 1536.

LEYDEN, LUCAS VAN, an eminent early Dutch painter and engraver, born in Leyden; succeeded in every branch of painting, and, like Durer, engraved his own pictures; his works are highly valued, and some of them very rare; he spent his means in high living and died young, only 39 (1494-1533).

LEYDEN JAR, an electric condenser, a cylindrical gla.s.s bottle lined inside and outside with metal to within a short distance from the top, while a bra.s.s rod connected with the inside coating extends upward through a wooden stopper terminating in a k.n.o.b.

LEYS SCHOOL, the Cambridge school founded in 1875 to supply under unsectarian religious influences a high-cla.s.s education, the founders of it having been chiefly members of the Methodist body.

LHa.s.sA (seat of the G.o.ds) (50), the capital of Thibet, and the metropolis of the Buddhist world in the Chinese Empire, stands in the middle of a plain 11,900 ft. above the sea-level; on a hill in the NW. of the centre of the city, a conical hill called Potala, amid temples and palaces, is the residence of the Grand Lama; the monasteries are 15 in number, and the priests 20,000, and it is the centre of the caravan trade.

L'HoPITAL. See HoPITAL, MICHEL DE L'.

LI, a Chinese mile, equal to one-third of an English mile.

LIA-FAIL, the stone of destiny on which the Irish kings used to be crowned, which was at length removed to Scone, in Perths.h.i.+re, and is now in Westminster under the coronation chair, having been removed thither by Edward I.

LIBERALISM, MODERN, "practically summed up" by Ruskin, in "the denial or neglect of the quality and intrinsic worth in things, the incapacity of discerning or refusal to discern worth and unworth in anything, and least of all in man."

LIBERAL-UNIONIST, one of the Liberal party in English politics, which in 1886 quitted the Liberal ranks and joined the Conservative party in opposition to the Home Rule policy of Mr. Gladstone.

LIBERATIONIST, one who advocates the emanc.i.p.ation of the Church from State control.