The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 283

LEGION OF HONOUR, an order of merit inst.i.tuted on republican principles on May 10, 1802, by Bonaparte when First Consul in recompense of civil and military services to the country; it originally consisted of four cla.s.ses, but now comprehends five: grand crosses, grand officers, commanders, officers, and chevaliers, each, of military or naval men, with pensions on a descending scale and all for life; their badge, a white star of five rays, bearing on the obverse an image of the republic and on the reverse two tricolor flags.

LEGITIMISTS, a name given to supporters of the Bourbon dynasty in France as opposed to the Orleanists, who supported the claims of Louis Philippe.

LEIBNITZ, German philosopher, mathematician, and man of affairs, born in Leipzig; studied law and took the degree of Doctor of Laws at Altorf; spent a good part of his life at courts, visited Paris and London and formed a friendship with the savans in both cities, and finally settled in Hanover, where he moved much in the circle of the Electress Sophia and her daughter Sophia Charlotte, the Prussian Queen, whom he entertained with his philosophy of the "infinitely little," as it has been called; he discovered with Newton the basis of the differential calculus, and concocted the system of monods (his "Monodology"), between which and the soul, he taught, there existed a "pre-established harmony,"

issuing in the cosmos; he was an optimist, and had for his motto the oft-quoted phrase, "Everything is for the best in the best of possible worlds"; his princ.i.p.al works in philosophy are his "Theodicee," written at the instance of Sophia Charlotte and in refutation of Bayle, and his "Monodologie," written on the suggestion of Prince Eugene (1646-1716).

LEICESTER (209), county town of Leicestershire, on the Soar, 40 m.

E. of Birmingham; is an ancient town, with several historic buildings; has grown rapidly of late owing to its hosiery, boot and shoe, and iron-founding industries; it sends two members to Parliament.

LEICESTER, ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF, Queen Elizabeth's favourite, fifth son of the Duke of Northumberland; won the queen's favour by his handsome appearance and courtly address; received many offices and honours, and on the death, under suspicious circ.u.mstances, of his Countess, Amy Robsart, aspired to her hand; still favoured, in spite of his unpopularity in the country, he was proposed as husband to Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1563; he married the dowager Lady Sheffield in 1573, and afterwards bigamously the Countess of Ess.e.x; after a short term of disfavour he was appointed commander in the Netherlands, and subsequently at Tilbury Fort, but proved an incapable soldier (1532-1588).

LEICESTERSHIRE (374), English midland county, bounded by Nottingham, Lincoln, Rutland, Northampton, Warwick, and Derby shires; is an undulating upland watered by the Soar, and mostly under pasture.

Leicester cattle and sheep are noted, and its Stilton cheeses. There are coal deposits and granite and slate quarries in the N. The chief towns are Leicester, the county town, Loughborough, and Hinckley.

LEIGH, AURORA, the heroine of Mrs. Browning's poem of the same name.

She styled it "a novel in verse," and wrote of it, it is "the most mature of my works, and the one into which my highest convictions upon Life and Art have entered."

LEIGHTON, FREDERICK, LORD, eminent English artist, born at Scarborough; studied in the chief art-centres of the Continent; his first exhibit at the Royal Academy being "Cimabue's Madonna carried in Procession through Florence," which was followed by a numerous array of others of cla.s.sic merit, and showing the scholar as well as the artist; he distinguished himself in sculpture as well as painting, and died President of the Royal Academy after being enn.o.bled (1830-1897).

LEIGHTON, ROBERT, a Scottish theologian, the son of a Puritan clergyman in London, who wrote a book against prelacy, and suffered cruelly at the hands of Laud in consequence; studied at Edinburgh; entered the Church, and became Presbyterian minister at Newbattle in 1641, but resigned in 1653; was made Princ.i.p.al of Edinburgh University; reluctantly consented to accept a bishopric, and chose the diocese of Dunblane, but declined all lordship connected with the office; was for a time archbishop of Glasgow; retired to England in 1674, and lived ten years afterwards with a widowed sister in Suss.e.x; he was a most saintly man, and long revered as such by the Scottish people; his writings, which are highly imaginative, were much admired by Coleridge (1611-1684).

LEIOTRICHI, a primitive race of people distinguished by their smooth hair.

LEIPZIG (357), in the W. of Saxony, and largest city of that kingdom; is the third city in Germany. The old portion is narrow and quaint, with historic buildings; the new is well built, with splendid edifices. It is the seat of the supreme court of the Empire, of an old university which has a magnificent library and well-equipped medical school, and of one of the finest conservatories of music in Europe. Its chief trade is in books, furs, leather, and cloth, and its chief industries type-founding and pianoforte-making. It was the birthplace of Leibnitz and Wagner, and is a.s.sociated also with Bach and Mendelssohn.

LEITH (68), chief seaport in E. of Scotland, on the Forth, contiguous to Edinburgh and the port of it; is an old, unattractive, but busy town. The harbour comprises five docks. The imports are corn, flour, wines, sugar, and fruit; the exports, coal, iron, paraffin, and whisky.

There are shipbuilding and engineering works, breweries, distilleries, and other industries. Leith Fort, between the town and Newhaven, is the head-quarters of the artillery for Scotland.

LEITHA, an Austrian stream which flows NE. and falls into the Danube E. of Vienna; divides Cis-Leithan from Trans-Leithan.

LELAND, CHARLES, an American writer, born at Philadelphia; bred to the bar, but left law for literature, and contributed to the journals; has taken interest in and written on the industrial arts, social science, folk-lore, the gypsies, &c.; his works are numerous, and of a humorous or burlesque character, and include "The Poetry and Mystery of Dreams," "The Legends of Birds," "Hans Breitmann's Ballads," &c.; _b_. 1824.

LELAND, JOHN, English antiquary, born in London; travelled much on the Continent and ama.s.sed vast learning; held a commission from Henry VIII. to examine the antiquities and libraries of England, in fulfilment of which charge he spent six years in collecting a world of things that would otherwise have been lost, and the rest of his life, till he went insane, in arranging them (1506-1552).

LELAND, JOHN, a Nonconformist minister, born in Wigan; wrote chiefly in defence of Christianity against the attacks of the Deists (1691-1766).

LELY, SIR PETER, a painter, born in Westphalia; settled in London; took to portrait-painting, and was patronised by Charles I. and II., as well as by Cromwell; he painted the portraits of his patrons, and the beauties of Charles II.'s court; was Vandyck's successor (1618-1680).

LEMAN LAKE, the LAKE OF GENEVA (q. v.).

LEMBERG (128), the capital of Austrian Galicia, from its central position and ready communication with rivers and railways, enjoys an extensive trade; Polish is the prevailing language; there is a flourishing university, and of the population 40,000 are Jews.

LEMMING RAT, a rodent, which "travelling in myriads seawards from the hills," as seen in Norway, "turns not to the right or the left, eats its way through whatever will eat, and climbs over whatever will not eat, and perishes before reaching the sea, its consistent rigidly straight journey, a journey nowhither." See the Application in the "Latter Pamphlet," No. 6.

LEMNOS (30), an island plateau in the aegean Sea, 30 m. SW. of the Dardanelles, Turkish since 1657; produces corn, wine, and tobacco, and is a place of exile for Turkish prisoners; the population is mostly Greek; chief town Kastro (3), on the W. coast.

LEMON, MARK, editor of _Punch_ from 1843 to his death, born in London; began his career as a dramatist, story-teller, and song-writer, writing 60 pieces for the stage and 100 songs (1809-1870).

LEM'URES, a name given by the Romans to the spirits of the dead, and who, such of them as are ghosts of the wicked, wander about at night as spectres, and tormented themselves, torment and frighten the living.

LENCLOS, NINON DE, a woman celebrated for wit and beauty, born in Paris, whose salon in the city was frequented by all the notable personages of the period; she was a woman of superior mental endowments as well as polished manners, but of loose morality and want of heart (1616-1705).

LENNEP, JACOB VAN, a Dutch dramatist and novelist, born at Amsterdam; bred to the bar and practised as a lawyer; was a devoted student of English literature, and executed translations from English poets; was called by his countrymen the Walter Scott of Holland (1802-1868).

LENNOX, an ancient district of Scotland that included Dumbartonshire and part of Stirlingshire.

LENORE, the heroine of a celebrated ballad by Burger, the German lyric poet, a maiden whose lover dies and whose spectre appears to her on horseback and carries her off mounted behind him.

LENORMANT, FRANcOIS, a distinguished archaeologist, born at Paris, a man of genius and of vast learning; his chief works "Manuel d'Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient," "Lettres a.s.syriologues," "Les Premieres Civilisations," and "Les Sciences Occultes en Asie" (1837-1883).

LENS, a piece of gla.s.s adapted as convex or concave so as to change the direction of the rays of light pa.s.sing through it and magnify or diminish the apparent size of an object.

LENT, a period of fasting previous to Easter, at first lasting only 40 hours, was gradually extended to three, four, or six days, then different Churches extended it to three and six: weeks; in the 6th century Gregory the Great fixed it for the West at 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, excluding Sundays; in the Eastern Church it begins on the Monday after quinquagesima and excludes both Sat.u.r.days and Sundays; in the Anglican Church the season is marked by special services, but the fast is not rigidly kept.

LENTHALL, WILLIAM, Speaker of the Long Parliament; is famous for his answer to the demand of Charles to point out to him five members he had come to arrest, "May it please your Majesty," said he, failing on his knees, "I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but as the House directs me" (1591-1662).

LEO, the fifth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters on July 22.