Chapter IX: Part 9

LANG, ANDREW (1844- ), British man of letters, was born on the 31st of March 1844, at Selkirk, Scotland. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, St Andrews University and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first class in the final classical schools in 1868, becoming a fellow and subsequently honorary fellow of Merton College. As a journalist, poet, critic and historian, he soon made a reputation as one of the ablest and most versatile writers of the day. His first publication was a volume of metrical experiments, _The Ballads and Lyrics of Old France_ (1872), and this was followed at intervals by other volumes of dainty verse, _xxii._ _Ballades in Blue China_ (1880, enlarged edition, 1888), _Ballads and Verses Vain_ (1884), selected by Mr Austin Dobson; _Rhymes à la Mode_ (1884), _Grass of Parnassus_ (1888), _Ban and Arrière Ban_ (1894), _New Collected Rhymes_ (1905). He collaborated with S. H. Butcher in a prose translation (1879) of the _Odyssey_, and with E. Myers and Walter Leaf in a prose version (1883) of the _Iliad_, both of them remarkable for accurate scholarship and excellence of style. As a Homeric scholar, of conservative views, he took a high rank. His _Homer and the Epic_ appeared in 1893; a new prose translation of _The Homeric Hymns_ in 1899, with essays literary and mythological, in which parallels to the Greek myths are given from the traditions of savage races; and his _Homer and his Age_ in 1906. His purely journalistic activity was from the first of a varied description, ranging from sparkling "leaders" for the _Daily News_ to miscellaneous articles for the _Morning Post_, and for many years he was literary editor of _Longman's Magazine_; no critic was in more request, whether for occasional articles and introductions to new editions or as editor of dainty reprints. To the study of Scottish history Mr Lang brought a scholarly care for detail, a piquant literary style, and a gift for disentangling complicated questions. The _Mystery of Mary Stuart_ (1901, new and revised ed., 1904) was a consideration of the fresh light thrown on Mary's history by the Lennox MSS. in the University library, Cambridge, strengthening her case by restating the perfidy of her accusers. He also wrote monographs on _The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart_ (1906) and _James VI. and the Gowrie Mystery_ (1902). The somewhat unfavourable view of John Knox presented in his book _John Knox and the Reformation_ (1905) aroused considerable controversy. He gave new information about the continental career of the Young Pretender in _Pickle the Spy_ (1897), an account of Alastair Ruadh Macdonell, whom he identified with Pickle, a notorious Hanoverian spy. This was followed in 1898 by _The Companions of Pickle_, and in 1900 by a monograph on _Prince Charles Edward_. In 1900 he began a _History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation_, the fourth volume of which (1907) brought Scottish history down to 1746. _The Valet's Tragedy_ (1903), which takes its title from an essay on the "Man with the Iron Mask," (see IRON MASK), collects twelve papers on historical mysteries, and _A Monk of Fife_ (1896) is a fictitious narrative purporting to be written by a young Scot in France in 1429-1431. Mr Lang's versatility was also shown in his valuable works on folk-lore and on primitive religion. The earliest of these works was _Custom and Myth_ (1884); in _Myth, Literature and Religion_ (2 vols., 1887, French trans., 1896) he explained the irrational elements of mythology as survivals from earlier savagery; in _The Making of Religion_ (an idealization of savage animism) he maintained the existence of high spiritual ideas among savage races, and instituted comparisons between savage practices and the occult phenomena among civilized races; he dealt with the origins of totemism (q.v.) in _Social Origins_, printed (1903) together with J. J. Atkinson's _Primal Law_. He was one of the founders of the study of "Psychical Research," and his other writings on anthropology include _The Book of Dreams and Ghosts_ (1897), _Magic and Religion_ (1901) and _The Secret of the Totem_ (1905). He carried the humour and sub-acidity of discrimination which marked his criticism of fellow folk-lorists into the discussion of purely literary subjects in his _Books and Bookmen_ (1886), _Letters to Dead Authors_ (1886), _Letters on Literature_ (1889), &c. His _Blue Fairy Tale Book_ (1889), beautifully produced and illustrated, was followed annually at Christmas by a book of fairy tales and romances drawn from many sources. He edited _The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns_ (1896), and was responsible for the _Life and Letters_ (1897) of J. G. Lockhart, and _The Life, Letters and Diaries_ (1890) of Sir Stafford Northcote, first earl of Iddesleigh.

LANG, KARL HEINRICH, RITTER VON (1764-1835), German historian, was born on the 7th of June 1764 at Balgheim, near Nördlingen. From the first he was greatly attracted towards historical studies, and this was shown when he began to attend the gymnasium of Oettingen, and in 1782, when he went to the university of Altdorf, near Nuremberg. At the same time he studied jurisprudence, and in 1782 became a government clerk at Oettingen. About the same period began his activities as a journalist and publicist. But Lang did not long remain an official. He was of a restless, changeable character, which constantly involved him in personal quarrels, though he was equally quick to retire from them. In 1788 he obtained a position as private tutor in Hungary, and in 1789 became private secretary to Baron von Bühler, the envoy of Württemberg at Vienna. This led to further travels and to his entering the service of the prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein. In 1792 Lang again betook himself to a university, this time to Göttingen. Here he came under the influence of the historian, Ludwig Timotheus Spittler, from whom, as also from Johannes von Müller and Friedrich Schlegel, his historical studies received a fresh impulse. At intervals from 1793 to 1801 Lang was closely connected with the Prussian statesman Hardenberg, who employed him as his private secretary and archivist, and in 1797 he was present with Hardenberg at the congress of Rastadt as secretary to the legation. He was occupied chiefly with affairs of the principalities of Anspach and Bayreuth, newly acquired by Prussia, and especially in the settlement of disputes with Bavaria as to their boundaries.

When in 1805 the principalities became part of Bavaria, Lang entered the Bavarian service (1806), was ennobled in 1808 and from 1810 to 1817 held the office of archivist in Munich. He again devoted himself with great enthusiasm to historical studies, which naturally dealt chiefly with Bavarian history. He evolved the theory, among other things, that the boundaries of the old counties or _pagi_ (_Gaue_) were identical with those of the dioceses. This theory was combated in later days, and caused great confusion in the province of historical geography. For the rest, Lang did great service to the study of the history of Bavaria, especially by bringing fresh material from the archives to bear upon it. He also kept up his activity as a publicist, in 1814 defending in a detailed and somewhat biassed pamphlet the policy of the minister Montgelas, and he undertook critical studies in the history of the Jesuits. In 1817 Lang retired from active life, and until his death, which took place on the 26th of March 1835, lived chiefly in Ansbach.

Lang is best known through his _Memoiren_, which appeared at Brunswick in two parts in 1842, and were republished in 1881 in a second edition. They contain much of interest for the history of the period, but have to be used with the greatest caution on account of their pronounced tendency to satire. Lang's character, as can be gathered especially from a consideration of his behaviour at Munich, is darkened by many shadows. He did not scruple, for instance, to strike out of the lists of witnesses to medieval charters, before publishing them, the names of families which he disliked.

Of his very numerous literary productions the following may be
mentioned: _Beiträge zur Kenntnis der natürlichen und politischen
Verfassung des oettingischen Vaterlandes_ (1786); _Ein Votum über den
Wucher von einem Manne sine voto_ (1791); _Historische Entwicklung der
deutschen Steuerverfassungen_ (1793); _Historische Prüfung des
vermeintlichen Alters der deutschen Landstände_ (1796); _Neuere
Geschichte des Fürstentums Bayreuth_ (1486-1603) (1798-1811);
_Tabellen über Flächeninhalt &c. und bevorstehende Verluste der
deutschen Reichsstände_. (On the occasion of the congress of Rastadt,
1798); _Der Minister Graf von Montgelas_ (1814); _Geschichte der
Jesuiten in Bayern_ (1819); and _Bayerns Gauen_ (Nuremberg, 1830).

See K. Th. v. Heigel, _Augsburger allgemeine Zeitung_ for 1878, p.
1969 et seq., 1986 et seq. (Beilage of the 14th and 15th of May); F.
Muncker, in _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, vol. xvii. (1883); F. X.
v. Wegele, _Geschichte der deutschen Historiographie_ (1885).
(J. Hn.)

LANGDELL, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (1826-1906), American jurist, was born in New Boston, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, on the 22nd of May 1826, of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. He studied at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1845-1848, at Harvard College in 1848-1850 and in the Harvard Law School in 1851-1854. He practised law in 1854-1870 in New York City, but he was almost unknown when, in January 1870, he was appointed Dane professor of law (and soon afterwards Dean of the Law Faculty) of Harvard University, to succeed Theophilus Parsons, to whose _Treatise on the Law of Contracts_ (1853) he had contributed as a student. He resigned the deanship in 1895, in 1900 became Dane professor emeritus, and on the 6th of July 1906 died in Cambridge. He received the degree of LL.D. in 1875; in 1903 a chair in the law school was named in his honour; and after his death one of the school's buildings was named Langdell Hall. He made the Harvard Law School a success by remodelling its administration and by introducing the "case" system of instruction.

Langdell wrote _Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts_ (1870, the
first book used in the "case" system; enlarged, 1877); _Cases on
Sales_ (1872); _Summary of Equity Pleading_ (1877, 2nd ed., 1883);
_Cases in Equity Pleading_ (1883); and _Brief Survey of Equity
Jurisdiction_ (1905).

LANGDON, JOHN (1741-1819), American statesman, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 25th of June 1741. After an apprenticeship in a counting-house, he led a seafaring life for several years, and became a shipowner and merchant. In December 1774, as a militia captain he assisted in the capture of Fort William and Mary at New Castle, New Hampshire, one of the first overt acts of the American colonists against the property of the crown. He was elected to the House of Representatives of the last Royal Assembly of New Hampshire and then to the second Continental Congress in 1775, and was a member of the first Naval Committee of the latter, but he resigned in 1776, and in June 1776 became Congress's agent of prizes in New Hampshire and in 1778 continental (naval) agent of Congress in this state, where he supervised the building of John Paul Jones's "Ranger" (completed in June 1777), the "America," launched in 1782, and other vessels. He was a judge of the New Hampshire Court of Common Pleas in 1776-1777, a member (and speaker) of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1776 until 1782, a member of the state Constitutional Convention of 1778 and of the state Senate in 1784-1785, and in 1783-1784 was again a member of Congress. He contributed largely to raise troops in 1777 to meet Burgoyne; and he served as a captain at Bennington and at Saratoga. He was president of New Hampshire in 1785-1786 and in 1788-1789; a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention in 1787, where he voted against granting to Congress the power of issuing paper money; a member of the state convention which ratified the Federal Constitution for New Hampshire; a member of the United States Senate in 1789-1801, and its president _pro tem_. during the first Congress and the second session of the second Congress; a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1801-1805 and its speaker in 1803-1805; and governor of the state in 1805-1809 and in 1810-1812. He received nine electoral votes for the vice-presidency in 1808, and in 1812 was an elector on the Madison ticket. He died in Portsmouth on the 18th of September 1819. He was an able leader during the Revolutionary period, when his wealth and social position were of great assistance to the patriot party. In the later years of his life in New Hampshire he was the most prominent of the local Republican leaders and built up his party by partisan appointments. He refused the naval portfolio in Jefferson's cabinet.

His elder brother, WOODBURY LANGDON (1739-1805), was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1779-1780, a member of the executive council of New Hampshire in 1781-1784, judge of the Supreme Court of the state in 1782 and in 1786-1790 (although he had had no legal training), and a state senator in 1784-1785.

Alfred Langdon Elwyn has edited _Letters by Washington, Adams,
Jefferson and Others, Written During and After the Revolution, to John
Langdon of New Hampshire_ (Philadelphia, 1880), a book of great
interest and value. See a biographical sketch of John Langdon by
Charles R. Corning in the _New England Magazine_, vol. xxii. (Boston,
1897).

LANGE, ANNE FRANÇOISE ELIZABETH (1772-1816), French actress, was born in Genoa on the 17th of September 1772, the daughter of a musician and an actress at the Comédie Italienne. She made her first appearance on the stage at Tours in 1787 and a successful début at the Comédie Française in 1788 in _L'Écossaise_ and _L'Oracle_. She followed Talma and the others in 1791 to the Rue Richelieu, but returned after a few months to the Comédie Française. Here her talent and beauty gave her an enormous success in François de Neuchâteau's _Pamela_, the performance of which brought upon the theatre the vials of wrath of the Committee of Safety. With the author and the other members of the caste, she was arrested and imprisoned. After the 9th Thermidor she rejoined her comrades at the Feydeau, but retired on the 16th of December 1797, reappearing only for a few performances in 1807. She had, meantime, married the son of a rich Belgian named Simons. She died on the 25th of May 1816.

LANGE, ERNST PHILIPP KARL (1813-1899), German novelist, who wrote under the pseudonym _Philipp Galen_, was born at Potsdam on the 21st of December 1813. He studied medicine at Berlin (1835-1840), and on taking his degree, in 1840, entered the Prussian army as surgeon. In this capacity he saw service in the Schleswig-Holstein campaign of 1849. He settled at Bielefeld as medical practitioner and here issued his first novel, _Der Inselkönig_ (1852, 3rd ed., 1858), which enjoyed considerable popularity. In Bielefeld he continued to work at his profession and to write, until his retirement, with the rank of _Oberstabsarzt_ (surgeon-general) to Potsdam in 1878; there he died on the 20th of February 1899. Lange's novels are distinguished by local colouring and pretty, though not powerful, descriptions of manners and customs. He particularly favoured scenes of English life, though he had never been in that country, and on the whole he succeeded well in his descriptions. Chief among his novels are, _Der Irre von St James_ (1853, 5th ed., 1871), and _Emery Glandon_ (3rd ed., Leip., 1865), while of those dealing with the Schleswig-Holstein campaign _Andreas Burns_ (1856) and _Die Tochter des Diplomaten_ (1865) commanded considerable attention.

His _Gesammelte Schriften_ appeared in 36 vols. (1857-1866).

LANGE, FRIEDRICH ALBERT (1828-1875), German philosopher and sociologist, was born on the 28th of September 1828, at Wald, near Solingen, the son of the theologian, J. P. Lange (q.v.). He was educated at Duisburg, Zürich and Bonn, where he distinguished himself by gymnastics as much as by study. In 1852 he became schoolmaster at Cologne; in 1855 _privatdozent_ in philosophy at Bonn; in 1858 schoolmaster at Duisburg, resigning when the government forbade schoolmasters to take part in political agitation. Lange then entered on a career of militant journalism in the cause of political and social reform. He was also prominent in the affairs of his town, yet found leisure to write most of his best-known books, _Die Leibesübungen_ (1863), _Die Arbeiterfrage_ (1865, 5th ed. 1894), _Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart_ (1866; 7th ed. with biographical sketch by H. Cohen, 1902; Eng. trans., E. C. Thomas, 1877), and _J. S. Mill's Ansichten über die sociale Frage_ (1866). In 1866, discouraged by affairs in Germany, he moved to Winterthur, near Zürich, to become connected with the democratic newspaper, _Winterthurer Landbote_. In 1869 he was _Privatdozent at Zürich_, and next year professor. The strong French sympathies of the Swiss in the Franco-German War led to his speedy resignation. Thenceforward he gave up politics. In 1872 he accepted a professorship at Marburg. Unhappily, his vigorous frame was already stricken with disease, and, after a lingering illness, he died at Marburg, on the 23rd of November 1875, diligent to the end. His _Logische Studien_ was published by H. Cohen in 1877 (2nd ed., 1894). His main work, the _Geschichte des Materialismus_, which is brilliantly written, with wide scientific knowledge and more sympathy with English thought than is usual in Germany, is rather a didactic exposition of principles than a history in the proper sense. Adopting the Kantian standpoint that we can know nothing but phenomena, Lange maintains that neither materialism nor any other metaphysical system has a valid claim to ultimate truth. For empirical phenomenal knowledge, however, which is all that man can look for, materialism with its exact scientific methods has done most valuable service. Ideal metaphysics, though they fail of the inner truth of things, have a value as the embodiment of high aspirations, in the same way as poetry and religion. In Lange's _Logische Studien_, which attempts a reconstruction of formal logic, the leading idea is that reasoning has validity in so far as it can be represented in terms of space. His _Arbeiterfrage_ advocates an ill-defined form of socialism. It protests against contemporary industrial selfishness, and against the organization of industry on the Darwinian principle of struggle for existence.

See O. A. Ellissen, _F. A. Lange_ (Leipzig, 1891), and in _Monatsch.
d. Comeniusgesell_. iii., 1894, 210 ff.; H. Cohen in _Preuss_.
_Jahrb._ xxvii., 1876, 353 ff.; Vaihinger, _Hartmann, Dühring und
Lange_ (Iserlohn, 1876); J. M. Bösch, _F. A. Lange und sein Standpunkt
d. Ideals_ (Frauenfeld, 1890); H. Braun, _F. A. Lange, als
Socialökonom_ (Halle, 1881). (H. St.)

LANGE, JOHANN PETER (1802-1884), German Protestant theologian, was of peasant origin and was born at Sonneborn near Elberfeld on the 10th of April 1802. He studied theology at Bonn (from 1822) under K. I. Nitzsch and G. C. F. Lücke, held several pastorates, and eventually (1854) settled at Bonn as professor of theology in succession to Isaac A. Dorner, becoming also in 1860 counsellor to the consistory. He died on the 9th of July 1884. Lange has been called the poetical theologian _par excellence_: "It has been said of him that his thoughts succeed each other in such rapid and agitated waves that all calm reflection and all rational distinction become, in a manner, drowned" (F. Lichtenberger). As a dogmatic writer he belonged to the school of Schleiermacher. His _Christliche Dogmatik_ (3 vols., 1849-1852, new edition, 1870) "contains many fruitful and suggestive thoughts, which, however, are hidden under such a mass of bold figures and strange fancies, and suffer so much from want of clearness of presentation, that they did not produce any lasting effect" (Otto Pfleiderer).

His other works include Das Leben Jesu (3 vols., 1844-1847), _Das
apostolische Zeitalter_ (2 vols., 1853-1854). _Grundriss der
theologischen Enzyklopädie_ (1877). _Grundriss der christlichen Ethik_
(1878), and _Grundriss der Bibelkunde_ (1881). In 1857 he undertook
with other scholars a _Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk_, to which
he contributed commentaries on the first four books of the Pentateuch,
Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Revelation. The _Bibelwerk_
has been translated, enlarged and revised under the general editorship
of Dr Philip Schaff.

LANGEAIS, a town of west-central France in the department of Indre-et-Loire, on the right bank of the Loire, 16 m. W.S.W. of Tours by rail. Pop. (1906) town, 1755; commune, 3550. Langeais has a church of the 11th, 12th and 15th centuries but is chiefly interesting for the possession of a large château built soon after the middle of the 15th century by Jean Bourré, minister of Louis XI. Here the marriage of Charles VIII. and Anne of Brittany took place in 1491. In the park are the ruins of a keep of late 10th-century architecture, built by Fulk Nerra, count of Anjou.

LANGEN, JOSEPH (1837-1901), German theologian, was born at Cologne on the 3rd of June 1837. He studied at Bonn, was ordained priest in 1859, was nominated professor extraordinary at the university of Bonn in 1864, and a professor in ordinary of the exegesis of the New Testament in 1867--an office which he held till his death. He was one of the able band of professors who in 1870 supported Döllinger in his resistance to the Vatican decrees, and was excommunicated with Ignaz v. Döllinger, Johann Huber, Johann Friedrich, Franz Heinrich Reusch, Joseph Hubert Reinkens and others, for refusing to accept them. In 1878, in consequence of the permission given to priests to marry, he ceased to identify himself with the Old Catholic movement, although he was not reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church. Langen was more celebrated as a writer than as a speaker. His first work was an inquiry into the authorship of the Commentary on St Paul's Epistles and the Treatise on Biblical Questions, ascribed to Ambrose and Augustine respectively. In 1868 he published an _Introduction to the New Testament_, a work of which a second edition was called for in 1873. He also published works on the _Last Days of the Life of Jesus_, on _Judaism in the Time of Christ_, on _John of Damascus_ (1879) and an _Examination of the Vatican Dogma in the Light of Patristic Exegesis of the New Testament_. But he is chiefly famous for his _History of the Church of Rome to the Pontificate of Innocent III._ (4 vols., 1881-1893), a work of sound scholarship, based directly upon the authorities, the most important sources being woven carefully into the text. He also contributed largely to the _Internationale theologische Zeitschrift_, a review started in 1893 by the Old Catholics to promote the union of National Churches on the basis of the councils of the Undivided Church, and admitting articles in German, French and English. Among other subjects, he wrote on the School of Hierotheus, on Romish falsifications of the Greek Fathers, on Leo XIII., on Liberal Ultramontanism, on the Papal Teaching in regard to Morals, on Vincentius of Lerins and he carried on a controversy with Professor Willibald Beyschlag, of the German Evangelical Church, on the respective merits of Protestantism and Old Catholicism regarded as a basis for teaching the Christian faith. An attack of apoplexy put an end to his activity as a teacher and hastened his death, which occurred in July 1901. (J. J. L.*)

LANGENBECK, BERNHARD RUDOLF KONRAD VON (1810-1887), German surgeon, was born at Horneburg on the 9th of November 1810, and received his medical education at Göttingen, where he took his doctor's degree in 1835 with a thesis on the structure of the retina. After a visit to France and England, he returned to Göttingen as _Privatdozent_, and in 1842 became professor of surgery and director of the Friedrichs Hospital at Kiel. Six years later he succeeded J. F. Dieffenbach (1794-1847) as director of the Clinical Institute for Surgery and Ophthalmology at Berlin, and remained there till 1882, when failing health obliged him to retire. He died at Wiesbaden on the 30th of September 1887. Langenbeck was a bold and skilful operator, but was disinclined to resort to operation while other means afforded a prospect of success. He devoted particular attention to military surgery, and was a great authority in the treatment of gunshot wounds. Besides acting as general field-surgeon of the army in the war with Denmark in 1848, he saw active service in 1864, 1866, and again in the Franco-German campaign of 1870-71. He was in Orleans at the end of 1870, after the city had been taken by the Prussians, and was unwearied in his attentions, whether as operator or consultant, to wounded men with whom every public building was packed. He also utilized the opportunities for instruction that thus arose, and the "Militär-Aerztliche Gesellschaft," which met twice a week for some months, and in the discussions of which every surgeon in the city was invited to take part, irrespective of nationality, was mainly formed by his energy and enthusiasm. He was ennobled for his services in the Danish War of 1864.

LANGENSALZA, a town in the Prussian province of Saxony, on the Salza, about 20 m. N. W. from Erfurt. Pop. (1905) 12,545. Near it are the remains of the old Benedictine monastery of Homburg or Hohenburg, where the emperor Henry IV. defeated the Saxons in 1075. The manufacture of cloth is the chief industry; lace, starch, machines, cigars and chemicals are also produced, while spinning, dyeing, brewing and printing are carried on. There is a sulphur bath in the neighbourhood, situated in a pleasant park, in which there are monuments to those who fell in the war of 1866. Langensalza became a town in 1211 and was afterwards part of the electorate of Saxony. In 1815 it came into the possession of Prussia. It is remarkable in history as the scene of three battles: (1) the victory of the Prussians and English over the imperial army on the 15th of February 1761; (2) that of the Prussians over the Bavarians on the 17th of April 1813; and (3) the engagement on the 27th of June 1866 between the Prussians and the Hanoverians, in which the latter, though victorious in the field, were compelled to lay down their arms on the arrival of overwhelming Prussian reinforcements.

See Göschel, _Chronik der Stadt Langensalza_ (Langensalza, 1818-1842);
G. and H. Schütz, _Chronik der Stadt Langensalza_ (Langensalza, 1901);
and Gutbier, _Schwefelbad Langensalza_ (Langensalza, 1900).

LANGHAM, SIMON (d. 1376), archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal, was born at Langham in Rutland, becoming a monk in the abbey of St Peter at Westminster, and later prior and then abbot of this house. In 1360 he was made treasurer of England and in 1361 he became bishop of Ely; he was appointed chancellor of England in 1363 and was chosen archbishop of Canterbury in 1366. Perhaps the most interesting incident in his primacy was when he drove the secular clergy from their college of Canterbury Hall, Oxford, and filled their places with monks. The expelled head of the seculars was a certain John de Wiclif, who has been identified with the great reformer Wycliffe. Notwithstanding the part Langham as chancellor had taken in the anti-papal measures of 1365 and 1366 he was made a cardinal by Pope Urban V. in 1368. This step lost him the favour of Edward III., and two months later he resigned his archbishopric and went to Avignon. He was soon allowed to hold other although less exalted positions in England, and in 1374 he was elected archbishop of Canterbury for the second time; but he withdrew his claim and died at Avignon on the 22nd of July 1376. Langham's tomb is the oldest monument to an ecclesiastic in Westminster Abbey; he left the residue of his estate--a large sum of money--to the abbey, and has been called its second founder.

LANGHOLM, a burgh of barony and police burgh of Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 3142. It is situated on both sides of the Esk, 16 m. N.E. of Annan, the terminus of a branch line connecting with the North British railway system at Riddings Junction. The Esk is crossed by a three-arched stone bridge, uniting the old town on the left bank with the new on the right, and a suspension bridge. Ewes Water, which falls into the river, is spanned by a two-arched bridge, 1 m. N. of the town. The public buildings include the town hall--a substantial edifice with a tower rising in three tiers from the body of the structure, the Telford library, and the Hope hospital for aged poor. Already famous for its plaids and blankets, the prosperity of the burgh advanced when it took up the manufacture of tweeds. Distilling, brewing, dyeing and tanning are also important industries. The Esk and Liddel being favourite fishing streams, Langholm is the headquarters of the association which protects the rights of anglers. About 1 m. to the N.W. stands Langholm Lodge, a seat of the duke of Buccleuch, and some 4 m. S.E. is Gilnockie Tower, the peel-house that belonged to Johnny Armstrong, the freebooter, who was executed by order of James V. in 1530.

LANGHORNE, JOHN (1735-1779), English poet and translator of Plutarch, was born at Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland. He At first supported himself as a private tutor and schoolmaster, and, having taken orders, was appointed (1766) to the rectory of Blagdon, Somerset, where he died on the 1st of April 1779. His poems (original and translations), and sentimental tales, are now forgotten, but his translation of Plutarch's _Lives_ (1770), in which he had the co-operation of his elder brother William (1721-1772), is not yet superseded. It is far less vigorous than Sir Thomas North's version (translated from Amyot) but is free from its inaccuracies. His poems were published in 1804 by his son, J. T. Langhorne, with a memoir of the author; they will also be found in R. Anderson's _Poets of Great Britain_, xi. (1794) and A. Chalmers's _English Poets_, xvi. (1810), with memoir. Of his poems, _The Country Justice_, a plea for the neglected poor, and _The Fables of Flora_, were the most successful; of his prose writings, _The Correspondence between Theodosius and Constantia_, founded on a well-known story in the _Spectator_ (No. 164).

LANGIEWICZ, MARYAN (1827-1887), Polish patriot, was born at Krotoszyn, in the province of Posen, on the 5th of August 1827, his father being the local doctor. Langiewicz was educated at Posen, Breslau and Prague, and was compelled to earn his daily bread by giving lectures. He subsequently entered the Prussian _Landwehr_ and served for a year in the royal guard. In 1860 he migrated to Paris and was for a time professor in the high school founded there by Mieroslawski. The same year he took part in Garibaldi's Neapolitan campaign, and was then a professor in the military school at Cuneo till the establishment was closed. In 1862 he entered into communication with the central Polish committee at Warsaw, and on the outbreak of the insurrection of the 22nd of January 1863, took the command of the armed bands. He defeated the Russians at Wachock and Slupia (February), capturing 1000 muskets and 8 cannon. This victory drew hundreds of young recruits to his standard, till at last he had 12,000 men at his disposal. On the 23rd of February he again defeated the Russians, at Malogoszcza, and captured 500 muskets and 2 cannon. On the 10th of March he proclaimed himself dictator and attempted to form a regular government; but either he had insufficient organizing talent, or had not time enough to carry out his plans, and after a fresh series of engagements his army was almost annihilated at Zagosc (18th of March), whereupon he took refuge in Austrian territory and was interned at Tarnow. He was subsequently transferred to the fortress of Josephstadt, from which he was released in 1865. He then lived at Solothurn as a citizen of the Swiss Republic, and subsequently entered the Turkish service as Langie Bey. He died at Constantinople on the 11th of May 1887.

See Boleslaw Limanowski, _The National Insurrection of 1863-64_ (Pol.)
(Lemberg, 1900); Paolo Mazzoleni, _I Bergamaschi in Polonia nel 1863_
(Bergamo, 1893); W. H. Bavink, _De Poolsche opstand 1863_, &c.
(Haarlem, 1864).

LANGLAND, WILLIAM (_c._ 1332-_c._ 1400), the supposed English poet, generally regarded until recently as the single author of the remarkable 14th-century poem _Piers the Plowman_. Its full title is--_The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, together with Vita de Do-wel, Do-bet, et Do-best, secundum Wit et Resoun_; usually given in Latin as _Visio Willelmi de Petra Plowman, &c._; the whole work being sometimes briefly described as _Liber de Petro Plowman_. We know nothing of William Langland except from the supposed evidence of the MSS. of the poem and the text itself, and it will be convenient first to give a brief general description of them.

The poem exists in three forms. If we denote these by the names of A-text (or Vernon), B-text (or Crowley), and C-text (or Whitaker), we find, of the first, ten MSS., of the second fourteen, and of the third seventeen, besides seven others of a mixed type. It will be seen that we thus have abundance of material, a circumstance which proves the great popularity of the poem in former times. Owing to the frequent expressions which indicate a desire for reformation in religion, it was, in the time of Edward VI., considered worthy of being printed. Three impressions of the B-text were printed by Robert Crowley in 1550; and one of these was badly reprinted by Owen Rogers in 1561. In 1813 the best MS. of the C-text was printed by Dr E. Whitaker. In 1842 Mr Thomas Wright printed an edition from an excellent MS. of the B-text in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (2nd ed., 1856, new ed., 1895). A complete edition of all three texts was printed for the Early English Text Society as edited by the Rev. W. W. Skeat, with the addition of _Richard the Redeless_, and containing full notes to all three texts, with a glossary and indexes, in 1867-1885. The Clarendon Press edition, by the same editor, appeared in 1886.

The A-text contains a prologue and 12 passus or cantos (i.-iv., the vision of the Lady Meed; v.-viii., the vision of Piers the Plowman; ix.-xii., the vision of Do-wel, Do-bet and Do-best), with 2567 lines. The B-text is much longer, containing 7242 lines, with additional passus following after xi. of A, the earlier passus being altered in various respects. The C-text, with 7357 lines, is a revision of B.

The general contents of the poem may be gathered from a brief description of the C-text. This is divided into twenty-three passus, nominally comprising four parts, called respectively Visio de Petro Plowman, Visio de Do-wel, Visio de Do-bet and Visio de Do-best. Here _Do-bet_ signifies "do better" in modern English; the explanation of the names being that he who does a kind action _does well_, he who teaches others to act kindly _does better_, whilst he who combines both practice and theory, both doing good himself and teaching others to do the same, _does best_. But the visions by no means closely correspond to these descriptions; and Skeat divides the whole into a set of eleven visions, which may be thus enumerated: (1) Vision of the Field Full of Folk, of Holy Church, and of the Lady Meed (passus i.-v.); (2) Vision of the Seven Deadly Sins, and of Piers the Plowman (pass. vi.-x.); (3) Wit, Study, Clergy and Scripture (pass. xi., xii.); (4) Fortune, Nature, Recklessness and Reason (pass. xiii., xiv.); (5) Vision of Imaginative (pass. xv.); (6) Conscience, Patience and Activa-Vita (pass. xvi., xvii.); (7) Free-will and the Tree of Charity (pass. xviii., xix.); (8) Faith, Hope and Charity (pass. xx.); (9) The Triumph of Piers the Plowman, i.e. the Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (pass. xxi.); (10) The Vision of Grace (pass. xxii.); (11) The Vision of Antichrist (pass. xxiii.).

The bare outline of the C-text gives little idea of the real nature of the poem. The author's object, as Skeat describes it, was to "afford himself opportunities (of which he has amply availed himself) for describing the life and manners of the poorer classes; for inveighing against clerical abuses and the rapacity of the friars; for representing the miseries caused by the great pestilences then prevalent and by the hasty and ill-advised marriages consequent thereupon; and for denouncing lazy workmen and sham beggars, the corruption and bribery then too common in the law courts, and all the numerous forms of falsehood which are at all time the fit subjects for satire and indignant exposure. In describing, for example, the seven deadly sins, he gives so exact a description of Glutton and Sloth that the reader feels them to be no mere abstractions, but drawn from the life; and it becomes hardly more difficult to realize Glutton than it is to realize Sir John Falstaff. The numerous allegorical personages so frequently introduced, such as Scripture, Clergy, Conscience, Patience and the like, are all mouthpieces of the author himself, uttering for the most part his own sentiments, but sometimes speaking in accordance with the character which each is supposed to represent. The theological disquisitions which are occasionally introduced are somewhat dull and tedious, but the earnestness of the author's purpose and his energy of language tend to relieve them, and there are not many passages which might have been omitted without loss. The poem is essentially one of those which improve on a second reading, and as a linguistic monument it is of very high value. Mere extracts from the poem, even if rather numerous and of some length, fail to give a fair idea of it. The whole deserves, and will repay, a careful study; indeed, there are not many single works from which a student of English literature and of the English language may derive more substantial benefit.

"The metre is alliterative, and destitute of final rhyme. It is not very regular, as the author's earnestness led him to use the fittest words rather than those which merely served the purpose of rhythm. The chief rule is that, in general, the same letter or combination of letters should begin _three_ stressed syllables in the same line, as, for example, in the line which may be modernized thus: 'Of all _m_anner of _m_en, the _m_ean and the rich.' Sometimes there are but _two_ such rhyme-letters, as: '_M_ight of the commons _m_ade him to reign.' Sometimes there are _four_, as: 'In a summer season, when soft was the sun.' There is invariably a pause, more or less distinct, in the middle of each line" (_Ency. Brit._, 9th ed., art. LANGLAND).

The traditional view, accepted by such great authorities as Skeat and Jusserand, that a single author--and that author Langland--was responsible for the whole poem, in all its versions, has been so recently disputed that it seems best to state it in Skeat's own words, before giving briefly the alternative view, which propounds a theory of composite authorship, denying any real existence to "William Langland." The account of the single-author theory is repeated from Professor Skeat's article in the 9th edition of this work, slightly revised by him in 1905 for this edition.

"The author's name is not quite certain, and the facts concerning his life are few and scanty. As to his Christian name we are sure, from various allusions in the poem itself, and the title _Visio Willelmi_, &c., in many MSS.; so that we may at once reject the suggestion that his name may have been Robert. In no less than three MSS. [of the C-text; one not later than 1427] occurs the following colophon: 'Explicit visio Willelmi W. de Petro le Plowman.' What is here meant by W. it is difficult to conjecture; but it is just possible that it may represent Wychwood (of which more presently), or Wigornensis, i.e. of Worcester. As to the surname, we find the note that 'Robert or William Langland made pers ploughman,' in a handwriting of the 15th century, on the fly-leaf of a MS. copy [of the B-text] formerly belonging to Lord Ashburnham, and now in the British Museum; and in a Dublin MS. [of the C-text] is the note [in a 15th-century hand]: 'Memorandum, quod Stacy de Rokayle, pater Willielmi de Langlond, qui Stacius fuit generosus et morabatur in Schiptone-under-Whicwode, tenens domini le Spenser in comitatu Oxon., qui predictus Willielmus fecit librum qui vocatur Perys Ploughman.' There is no trace of any Langland family in the midland counties, while the Langley family were wardens of Wychwood forest in Oxfordshire between the years 1278 and 1362; but this consideration can hardly set aside the above statement. According to Bale, our author was born at Cleobury Mortimer, which is quite consistent with the supposition that his father may have removed from that place to Shipton in Oxfordshire, as there seems to have been a real connexion between the families in those places.

"The internal evidence concerning the author is fuller and more satisfactory. By piecing together the various hints concerning himself which the poet gives us, we may compile the following account. His name was William (and probably Langland), and he was born about 1332, perhaps at Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. His father, who was doubtless a franklin or farmer, and his other friends put him to school, made a 'clerk' or scholar of him, and taught him what Holy Writ meant. In 1362, at the age of about thirty, he found himself wandering upon the Malvern hills, and fell asleep beside a stream, and saw in a vision a field full of folk, i.e. this present world, and many other remarkable sights which he duly records. From this supposed circumstance he named his poem _The Vision of William_, though it is really a succession of visions, since he mentions several occasions on which he awoke, and afterwards again fell asleep; and he even tells us of some adventures which befel him in his waking moments. In some of these visions there is no mention of Piers the Plowman, but in others he describes him as being the coming reformer who was to remedy all abuses, and restore the world to a right condition. It is remarkable that his conception of this reformer changes from time to time, and becomes more exalted as the poem advances. At first he is no more than a ploughman, one of the true and honest labourers who are the salt of the earth; but at last he is identified with the great reformer who has come already, the regenerator of the world in the person of Jesus Christ; in the author's own phrase--'Petrus est Christus.' If this be borne in mind, it will not be possible to make the mistake into which so many have fallen, of speaking of Piers the Plowman as being the author, not the subject, of the poem. The author once alludes to the nickname of Long Will bestowed upon him from his tallness of stature--just as the poet Gascoigne was familiarly called Long George. Though there is mention of the Malvern hills more than once near the beginning of the poem, it is abundantly clear that the poet lived for 'many years in Cornhill (London), with his wife Kitte and his daughter Calote.' He seems to have come to London soon after the date of the first commencement of his work, and to have long continued there. He describes himself as being a tall man, one who was loath to reverence lords or ladies or persons in gay apparel, and not deigning to say 'God save you' to the sergeants whom he met in the street, insomuch that many people took him to be a fool. He was very poor, wore long robes, and had a shaven crown, having received the clerical tonsure. But he seems only to have taken minor orders, and earned a precarious living by singing the _placebo_, _dirige_ and seven psalms for the good of men's souls. The fact that he was married may explain why he never rose in the church. But he had another source of livelihood in his ability to write out legal documents, and he was extremely familiar with the law courts at Westminster. His leisure time must have been entirely occupied with his poem, which was essentially the work of his lifetime. He was not satisfied with rewriting it once, but he actually re-wrote it twice; and from the abundance of the MSS. which still exist we can see its development from the earliest draught (A-text), written about 1362, to its latest form (C-text), written about 1393.[1]

"In 1399, just before the deposition of Richard II., appeared a poem addressed to the king, who is designated as 'Richard the Redeless,' i.e. devoid of counsel. This poem, occurring in only one MS. [of the B-text] in which it is incomplete, breaking off abruptly in the middle of a page, may safely be attributed to Langland, who was then in Bristol. As he was at that time about sixty-seven years of age, we may be sure that he did not long survive the accession of Henry IV. It may here be observed that the well-known poem, entitled _Pierce Ploughman's Crede_, though excellently written, is certainly an imitation by another hand; for the Pierce Ploughman of the _Crede_ is very different in conception from the subject of 'William's Vision.'"

On the other hand, the view taken by Professor J. M. Manly, of Chicago, which has recently obtained increasing acceptance among scholars, is that the early popularity of the _Piers Plowman_ poems has resulted in "the confusion of what is really the work of five different men," and that Langland himself is "a mythical author." The argument for the distinction in authorship rests on internal evidence, and on analysis of the style, diction and "visualizing" quality within the different texts. Whereas Skeat, regarding the three texts as due to the same author, gives most attention to the later versions, and considers B the intermediate form, as on the whole the best, Manly recognizes in A the real poet, and lays special stress on the importance of attention to the A-text, and particularly pass. i.-viii. In this A-text the two first visions are regarded as by a single author of genius, but the third is assigned to a continuator who tried to imitate him, the whole conclusion of the 12th passus being, moreover, by a third author, whose name, John But, is in fact given towards the end, but in a way leading Skeat only to credit him with a few lines. The same process of analysis leads to crediting the B-text and the C-text to separate and different authors, B working over the three visions of the A-text and making additions of his own, while C again worked over the B-text. The supposed references to the original author A, introduced by B and C, are then to be taken as part of the fiction. Who were the five authors? That question is left unsolved. John But, according to Professor Manly, was "doubtless a scribe" or "a minstrel." B, C and the continuator of A "seem to have been clerics, and, from their criticisms of monks and friars, to have been of the secular clergy," C being "a better scholar than either the continuator of A or B." A, who "exempts from his satire no order of society except monks," may have been himself a monk, but "as he exhibits no special technical knowledge or interests" he "may have been a layman." As regards Richard the Redeless, Professor Manly attributes this to another imitator; he regards identity of authorship as out of the question, in consequences of differences in style and thought, apart altogether from the conclusion as to the authorship of _Piers the Plowman_.

See the editions already referred to: _The Deposition of Richard II._,
ed. T. Wright (Camden Society), which is the same poem as _Richard the
Redeless_; Warton, _Hist. of Eng. Poetry_; Rev. H. H. Milman, _Hist.
of Latin Christianity_; G. P. Marsh, _Lectures on English_; H. Morley,
_English Writers_; B. ten Brink, _Early English Literature_; J. J.
Jusserand, _Observations sur la vision de P. P._ (Paris, 1879); _Les
Anglais au moyen âge: L'Épopée mystique de William Langland_ (1893,
Eng. trans. _Piers Plowman_, revised and enlarged by another 1894); J.
M. Manly in _Cambridge Hist. of English Lit._, vol. ii. and
bibliography. A long and careful summary of the whole poem is given in
Morley's _English Writers_, and is repeated in his _Illustrations of
English Religion_, ch. iii.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] According to Jusserand, 1398.

LANGLEY, SAMUEL PIERPONT (1834-1906), American physicist and astronomer, was born at Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts, on the 22nd of August 1834. After acting for a short time as assistant in Harvard College Observatory, he was appointed assistant professor of mathematics in the U.S. Naval Academy in 1866, and in the following year became director of the Allegheny Observatory at Pittsburg, a position which he held until his selection in 1887 as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. His name is especially associated with two main branches of investigation--aeronautics, and the exploration of the infra-red portions of the solar spectrum. The study of the latter he took up as a result of the publication in 1871 of an energy-curve of the spectrum by S. I. Lamansky. The imperfections of the thermopile, with which he began his work, led him, about 1880, to the invention of the bolometer, an instrument of extraordinary delicacy, which in its most refined form is believed to be capable of detecting a change of temperature amounting to less than one-hundred-millionth of a degree Centigrade. Depending on the fact that the electrical conductivity of a metallic conductor is decreased by heat, it consists of two strips of platinum, arranged to form the two arms of a Wheatstone bridge; one strip being exposed to a source of radiation from which the other is shielded, the heat causes a change in the resistance of one arm, the balance of the bridge is destroyed, and a deflection is marked on the galvanometer. The platinum strips are exceedingly minute, being in some cases only 1/250 in. in width, and less than one-tenth of that amount in thickness. By the aid of this instrument, Langley, working on Mount Whitney, 12,000 ft. above sea-level, discovered in 1881 an entirely unsuspected extension of the invisible infra-red rays, which he called the "new spectrum." The importance of his achievement may be judged from the fact that, while the visible spectrum includes rays having wave-lengths of from about 0.4 [mu] to 0.76 [mu], and no invisible heat-rays were known before 1881 having a wave-length greater than 1.8 [mu], he detected rays having a wave-length of 5.3 [mu]. In addition, taking advantage of the accuracy with which the bolometer can determine the position of a source of heat by which it is affected, he mapped out in this infra-red spectrum over 700 dark lines or bands resembling the Fraunhofer lines of the visible spectrum, with a probable accuracy equal to that of refined astronomical observations. In aeronautics he succeeded in demonstrating the practicability of mechanical flight. He first undertook a preliminary inquiry into the principles upon which flight depends, and established at Allegheny a huge "whirling table," the revolving arm of which could be driven by a steam-engine at any circumferential speed up to 70 m. an hour. The construction of a flying machine was next attempted. The first difficulty was to make it sufficiently light in relation to the power its machinery could develop; and several machines were built in which trials were made of steam, and of compressed air and carbonic acid gas as motive agents. About 1893 a satisfactory machine was ready, and a new series of troubles had to be faced, for it had to be launched at a certain initial speed, and in the face of any wind that might be blowing. To enable these conditions to be fulfilled, as well as to ensure that the machine, when it fell, should fall on water, the experiments were carried out on the Potomac river, some 30 m. below Washington. It was not till the autumn of 1894 that an efficient launching apparatus was devised, and then the wings were found not to be strong enough to bear the pressures to which they were subjected. Various other delays and mishaps followed, but ultimately, on the 6th of May 1896, a successful flight was made. On that day an aerodrome, weighing about 30 lb. and about 16 ft. in length, with wings measuring between 12 and 13 ft. from tip to tip, twice sustained itself in the air for 1½ minutes (the full time for which it was supplied with fuel and water), and traversed on each occasion a distance of over half a mile, falling gently into the water when the engines stopped. Later in the same year, on the 28th of November, a similar aerodrome flew about three-quarters of a mile, attaining a speed of 30 m. an hour. In 1903 he experimented with an aerodrome capable of carrying a man, but repeated accidents prevented it from being launched, and finally through lack of funds the experiments had to be abandoned without the machine ever having been free in the air (see also FLIGHT AND FLYING). Langley died on the 27th of February 1906.