Chapter XXIII: Act 1867: every British ship going to other countries where lemon or (14)

A first scheme, indicated by him, was immediately drawn out by two French engineers who were in the Egyptian service, MM. Linant Bey and Mougel Bey. This project, differing from others that had been previously presented or that were in opposition to it, provided for a direct communication between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. After being slightly modified, the plan was adopted in 1856 by an international commission of civil engineers to which it had been submitted. Encouraged by this approval, de Lesseps no longer allowed anything to stop him. He listened to no adverse criticism and receded before no obstacle. Neither the opposition of Lord Palmerston, who considered the projected disturbance as too radical not to endanger the commercial position of Great Britain, nor the opinions entertained, in France as well as in England, that the sea in front of Port Said was full of mud which would obstruct the entrance to the canal, that the sands from the desert would fill the trenches--no adverse argument, in a word, could dishearten Ferdinand de Lesseps. His faith made him believe that his adversaries were in the wrong; but how great must have been this faith, which permitted him to undertake the work at a time when mechanical appliances for the execution of such an undertaking did not exist, and when for the utilization of the proposed canal there was as yet no steam mercantile marine! Impelled by his convictions and talent, supported by the emperor Napoleon III. and the empress Eugénie, he succeeded in rousing the patriotism of the French and obtaining by their subscriptions more than half of the capital of two hundred millions of francs which he needed in order to form a company. The Egyptian government subscribed for eighty millions' worth of shares. The company was organized at the end of 1858. On the 25th of April 1859 the first blow of the pickaxe was given by Lesseps at Port Said, and on the 17th of November 1869 the canal was officially opened by the Khedive, Ismail Pacha (see SUEZ CANAL). While in the interests of his canal Lesseps had resisted the opposition of British diplomacy to an enterprise which threatened to give to France control of the shortest route to India, he acted loyally towards Great Britain after Lord Beaconsfield had acquired the Suez shares belonging to the Khedive, by frankly admitting to the board of directors of the company three representatives of the British government. The consolidation of interests which resulted, and which has been developed by the addition in 1884 of seven other British directors, chosen from among shipping merchants and business men, has augmented, for the benefit of all concerned, the commercial character of the enterprise.

Ferdinand de Lesseps steadily endeavoured to keep out of politics. If in 1869 he appeared to deviate from this principle by being a candidate at Marseilles for the Corps Législatif, it was because he yielded to the entreaties of the Imperial government in order to strengthen its goodwill for the Suez Canal. Once this goodwill had been shown, he bore no malice towards those who rendered him his liberty by preferring Gambetta. He afterwards declined the other candidatures that were offered him: for the Senate in 1876, and for the Chamber in 1877. In 1873 he became interested in a project for uniting Europe and Asia by a railway to Bombay, with a branch to Peking. He subsequently encouraged Major Roudaire, who wished to transform the Sahara desert into an inland sea. The king of the Belgians having formed an International African Society, de Lesseps accepted the presidency of the French committee, facilitated M. de Brazza's explorations, and acquired stations that he subsequently abandoned to the French government. These stations were the starting-point of French Congo. In 1879 a congress assembled in the rooms of the Geographical Society at Paris, under the presidency of Admiral de la Roncière le Noury, and voted in favour of the making of the Panama Canal. Public opinion, it may be declared, designated Ferdinand de Lesseps as the head of the enterprise. It was upon that occasion that Gambetta bestowed upon him the title of _Le Grand Français_. He was not a man to shirk responsibility, and notwithstanding that he had reached the age of 74, he undertook to carry out the Panama Canal project (see PANAMA CANAL and FRANCE: _History_). Politics, which de Lesseps had always avoided, was his greatest enemy in this matter. The winding-up of the Panama Company having been declared in the month of December 1888, the adversaries of the French Republic, seeking for a scandal that would imperil the government, hoped to bring about the prosecution of the directors of the Panama Company. Their attacks were so vigorously made that the government was obliged, in self-defence, to have judicial proceedings taken against Ferdinand de Lesseps, his son Charles (b. 1849) and his co-workers Fontane and Cottu. Charles de Lesseps, a victim offered to the fury of the politicians, tried to divert the storm upon his head and prevent it from reaching his father. He managed to draw down upon himself alone the burden of the condemnations pronounced. One of the consequences of the persecutions of which he was the object was to oblige him to spend three years, from 1896 to 1899, in England, where his participation in the management of the Suez Canal had won for him some strong friendships, and where he was able to see the great respect in which the memory and name of his father were held by Englishmen.

Ferdinand de Lesseps died at La Chenaie on the 7th of December 1894. He had contracted a second marriage in 1869 with Mlle Autard de Bragard, daughter of a former magistrate of Mauritius; and eleven out of twelve children of this marriage survived him. M. de Lesseps was a member of the French Academy, of the Academy of Sciences, of numerous scientific societies, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and of the Star of India, and had received the freedom of the City of London. According to some accounts he was unconscious of the disastrous events that took place during the closing months of his life. Others report that, feeling himself powerless to scatter the gathered clouds, and aware of his physical feebleness, he had had the moral courage to pass in the eyes of his family, which he did not wish to afflict, as the dupe of the efforts they employed to conceal the truth from him. This last version would not be surprising if we relied upon the following portrait, sketched by a person who knew him intimately:--"Simple in his tastes, never thinking of himself, constantly preoccupied about others, supremely kind, he did not and would not recognize such a thing as evil. Of a confiding nature, he was inclined to judge others by himself. This naturally affectionate abandonment that every one felt in him had procured him profound attachments and rare devotions. He showed, while making the Suez Canal, what a gift he possessed for levying the pacific armies he conducted. He set duty above everything, had in the highest degree a reverence for honour, and placed his indomitable courage at the service of everything that was beneficial with an abnegation that nothing could tire. His marvellous physical and moral equilibrium gave him an evenness of temper which always rendered his society charming. Whatever his cares, his work or his troubles, I have never noticed in him aught but generous impulses and a love of humanity carried even to those heroic imprudences of which they alone are capable who devote themselves to the amelioration of humanity." No doubt this eulogy requires some reservations. The striking and universal success which crowned his work on the Suez Canal gave him an absoluteness of thought which brooked no contradiction, a despotic temper before which every one must bow, and against which, when he had once taken a resolution, nothing could prevail, not even the most authoritative opposition or the most legitimate entreaties. He had resolved to construct the Panama Canal without locks, to make it an uninterrupted navigable way. All attempts to dissuade him from this resolution failed before his tenacious will. At his advanced age he went with his youngest child to Panama to see with his own eyes the field of his new enterprise. He there beheld the Culebra and the Chagres; he saw the mountain and the stream, those two greatest obstacles of nature that sought to bar his route. He paid no heed to them, but began the struggle against the Culebra and the Chagres. It was against them that was broken his invincible will, sweeping away in the defeat the work of Panama, his own fortune, his fame and almost an atom of his honour. But this atom, only grazed by calumny, has already been restored to him by posterity, for he died poor, having been the first to suffer by the disaster to his illusions. Political agitators, in order to sap the power of the Opportunist party, did not hesitate to drag in the mud one of the greatest citizens of France. But when the Panama "scandal" has been forgotten, for centuries to come the traveller in saluting the statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps at the entrance of the Suez Canal will pay homage to one of the most powerful embodiments of the creative genius of the 19th century.

See G. Barnett Smith, _The Life and Enterprises of Ferdinand de
Lesseps_ (London, 1893); and _Souvenirs de quarante ans_, by Ferdinand
de Lesseps (trans. by C. B. Pitman). (de B.)

LESSING, GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM (1729-1781), German critic and dramatist, was born at Kamenz in Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz), Saxony, on the 22nd of January 1729. His father, Johann Gottfried Lessing, was a clergyman, and, a few years after his son's birth, became _pastor primarius_ or chief pastor of Kamenz. After attending the Latin school of his native town, Gotthold was sent in 1741 to the famous school of St Afra at Meissen, where he made such rapid progress, especially in classics and mathematics, that, towards the end of his school career, he was described by the rector as "a steed that needed double fodder." In 1746 he entered the university of Leipzig as a theological student. The philological lectures of Johann Friedrich Christ (1700-1756) and Johann August Ernesti (1707-1781) proved, however, more attractive than those on theology, and he attended the philosophical disputations presided over by his friend A. G. Kästner, professor of mathematics and also an epigrammatist of repute. Among Lessing's chief friends in Leipzig were C. F. Weisse (1726-1804) the dramatist, and Christlob Mylius (1722-1754), who had made some name for himself as a journalist. He was particularly attracted by the theatre then directed by the talented actress Karoline Neuber (1697-1760), who had assisted Gottsched in his efforts to bring the German stage into touch with literature. Frau Neuber even accepted for performance Lessing's first comedy, _Der junge Gelehrte_ (1748), which he had begun at school. His father naturally did not approve of these new interests and acquaintances, and summoned him home. He was only allowed to return to Leipzig on the condition that he would devote himself to the study of medicine. Some medical lectures he did attend, but as long as Frau Neuber's company kept together the theatre had an irresistible fascination for him.

In 1748, however, the company broke up, and Lessing, who had allowed himself to become surety for some of the actors' debts, was obliged to leave Leipzig too, in order to escape their creditors. He went to Wittenberg, and afterwards, towards the end of the year, to Berlin, where his friend Mylius had established himself as a journalist. In Berlin Lessing now spent three years, maintaining himself chiefly by literary work. He translated three volumes of Charles Rollin's _Histoire ancienne_, wrote several plays--_Der Misogyn_, _Der Freigeist_, _Die Juden_--and in association with Mylius, began the _Beiträge zur Historie und Aufnahine des Theaters_ (1750), a periodical--which soon came to an end--for the discussion of matters connected with the drama. Early in 1751 he became literary critic to the _Vossische Zeitung_, and in this position laid the foundation for his reputation as a reviewer of learning, judgment and wit. At the end of 1751 he was in Wittenberg again, where he spent about a year engaged in unremitting study and research. He then returned to Berlin with a view to making literature his profession; and the next three years were among the busiest of his life. Besides translating for the booksellers, he issued several numbers of the _Theatralische Bibliothek_, a periodical similar to that which he had begun with Mylius; he also continued his work as critic to the _Vossische Zeitung_. In 1754 he gave a particularly brilliant proof of his critical powers in his _Vademecum für Herrn S. G. Lange_; as a retort to that writer's overbearing criticism, Lessing exposed with scathing satire Lange's errors in his popular translation of Horace.

By 1753 Lessing felt that his position was sufficiently assured to allow of him issuing an edition of his collected writings (_Schriften_, 6 vols., 1753-1755). They included his lyrics and epigrams, most of which had already appeared during his first residence in Berlin in a volume of _Kleinigkeiten_, published anonymously. Much more important were the papers entitled _Rettungen_, in which he undertook to vindicate the character of various writers--Horace and writers of the Reformation period, such as Cochlaeus and Cardanus--who had been misunderstood or falsely judged by preceding generations. The _Schriften_ also contained Lessing's early plays, and one new one, _Miss Sara Sampson_ (1755). Hitherto Lessing had, as a dramatist, followed the methods of contemporary French comedy as cultivated in Leipzig; _Miss Sara Sampson_, however, marks the beginning of a new period in the history of the German drama. This play, based more or less on Lille's _Merchant of London_, and influenced in its character-drawing by the novels of Richardson, is the first _bürgerliches Trauerspiel_, or "tragedy of common life" in German. It was performed for the first time at Frankfort-on-Oder in the summer of 1755, and received with great favour. Among Lessing's chief friends during his second residence in Berlin were the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), in association with whom he wrote in 1755 an admirable treatise, _Pope ein Metaphysiker!_ tracing sharply the lines which separate the poet from the philosopher. He was also on intimate terms with C. F. Nicolai (1733-1811), a Berlin bookseller and rationalistic writer, and with the "German Horace" K. W. Ramler (1725-1798); he had also made the acquaintance of J. W. L. Gleim (1719-1803), the Halberstadt poet, and E. C. von Kleist (1715-1759), a Prussian officer, whose fine poem. _Der Frühling_, had won for him Lessing's warm esteem.

In October 1755 Lessing settled in Leipzig with a view to devoting himself more exclusively to the drama. In 1756 he accepted the invitation of Gottfried Winkler, a wealthy young merchant, to accompany him on a foreign tour for three years. They did not, however, get beyond Amsterdam, for the outbreak of the Seven Years' War made it necessary for Winkler to return home without loss of time. A disagreement with his patron shortly after resulted in Lessing's sudden dismissal; he demanded compensation and, although in the end the court decided in his favour, it was not until the case had dragged on for about six years. At this time Lessing began the study of medieval literature to which attention had been drawn by the Swiss critics, Bodmer and Breitinger, and wrote occasional criticisms for Nicolai's _Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_. In Leipzig Lessing had also an opportunity of developing his friendship with Kleist who happened to be stationed there. The two men were mutually attracted, and a warm affection sprang up between them. In 1758 Kleist's regiment being ordered to new quarters, Lessing decided not to remain behind him and returned again to Berlin. Kleist was mortally wounded in the following year at the battle of Kunersdorf.

Lessing's third residence in Berlin was made memorable by the _Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend_ (1759-1765), a series of critical essays--written in the form of letters to a wounded officer--on the principal books that had appeared since the beginning of the Seven Years' War. The scheme was suggested by Nicolai, by whom the _Letters_ were published. In Lessing's share in this publication, his critical powers and methods are to be seen at their best. He insisted especially on the necessity of truth to nature in the imaginative presentation of the facts of life, and in one letter he boldly proclaimed the superiority of Shakespeare to Corneille, Racine and Voltaire. At the same time he marked the immutable conditions to which even genius must submit if it is to succeed in its appeal to our sympathies. While in Berlin at this time, he edited with Ramler a selection from the writings of F. von Logau, an epigrammatist of the 17th century, and introduced to the German public the _Lieder eines preussischen Grenadiers_, by J. W. L. Gleim. In 1759 he published _Philotas_, a prose tragedy in one act, and also a complete collection of his fables, preceded by an essay on the nature of the fable. The latter is one of his best essays on criticism, defining with perfect lucidity what is meant by "action" in works of the imagination, and distinguishing the action of the fable from that of the epic and the drama.

In 1760, feeling the need of some change of scene and work, Lessing went to Breslau, where he obtained the post of secretary to General Tauentzien, to whom Kleist had introduced him in Leipzig. Tauentzien was not only a general in the Prussian army, but governor of Breslau, and director of the mint. During the four years which Lessing spent in Breslau, he associated chiefly with Prussian officers, went much into society, and developed a dangerous fondness for the gaming table. He did not, however, lose sight of his true goal; he collected a large library, and, after the conclusion of the Seven Years' War, in 1763, he resumed more enthusiastically than ever the studies which had been partially interrupted. He investigated the early history of Christianity and penetrated more deeply than any contemporary thinker into the significance of Spinoza's philosophy. He also found time for the studies which were ultimately to appear in the volume entitled _Laokoon_, and in fresh spring mornings he sketched in a garden the plan of _Minna von Barnhelm_.

After resigning his Breslau appointment in 1765, he hoped for a time to obtain a congenial appointment in Dresden, but nothing came of this and he was again compelled, much against his will, to return to Berlin. His friends there exerted themselves to obtain for him the office of keeper of the royal library, but Frederick had not forgotten Lessing's quarrel with Voltaire, and declined to consider his claims. During the two years which Lessing now spent in the Prussian capital, he was restless and unhappy, yet it was during this period that he published two of his greatest works, _Laokoon, oder über die Grenzen der Malerei und Poesie_ (1766) and _Minna von Barnhelm_ (1767). The aim of Laokoon, which ranks as a classic, not only in German but in European literature, is to define by analysis the limitations of poetry and the plastic arts. Many of his conclusions have been corrected and extended by later criticism; but he indicated more decisively than any of his predecessors the fruitful principle that each art is subject to definite conditions, and that it can accomplish great results only by limiting itself to its special function. The most valuable parts of the work are those which relate to poetry, of which he had a much more intimate knowledge than of sculpture and painting. His exposition of the methods of Homer and Sophocles is especially suggestive, and he may be said to have marked an epoch in the appreciation of these writers, and of Greek literature generally. The power of _Minna von Barnhelm_, Lessing's greatest drama, was also immediately recognized. Tellheim, the hero of the comedy, is an admirable study of a manly and sensitive soldier, with somewhat exaggerated ideas of conventional honour; and Minna, the heroine, is one of the brightest and most attractive figures in German comedy. The subordinate characters are conceived with even more force and vividness; and the plot, which reflects precisely the struggles and aspirations of the period that immediately followed the Seven Years' War, is simply and naturally unfolded.

In 1767 Lessing settled in Hamburg, where he had been invited to take part in the establishment of a national theatre. The scheme promised well, and, as he associated himself with Johann Joachim Christoph Bode (1730-1793), a literary man whom he respected, in starting a printing establishment, he hoped that he might at last look forward to a peaceful and prosperous career. The theatre, however, was soon closed, and the printing establishment failed, leaving behind it a heavy burden of debt. In despair, Lessing determined towards the end of his residence in Hamburg to quit Germany, believing that in Italy he might find congenial labour that would suffice for his wants. The _Hamburgische Dramaturgie_ (1767-1768), Lessing's commentary on the performances of the National Theatre, is the first modern handbook of the dramatist's art. By his original interpretation of Aristotle's theory of tragedy, he delivered German dramatists from the yoke of the classic tragedy of France, and directed them to the Greek dramatists and to Shakespeare. Another result of Lessing's labours in Hamburg was the _Antiquarische Briefe_ (1768), a series of masterly letters in answer to Christian Adolf Klotz (1738-1771), a professor of the university of Halle, who, after flattering Lessing, had attacked him, and sought to establish a kind of intellectual despotism by means of critical journals which he directly or indirectly controlled. In connexion with this controversy Lessing wrote his brilliant little treatise, _Wie die Alten den Tod gebildet_ (1769), contrasting the medieval representation of death as a skeleton with the Greek conception of death as the twin-brother of sleep.

Instead of settling in Italy, as he intended, Lessing accepted in 1770 the office of librarian at Wolfenbüttel, a post which was offered to him by the hereditary prince of Brunswick. In this position he passed his remaining years. For a time he was not unhappy, but the debts which he had contracted in Hamburg weighed heavily on him, and he missed the society of his friends; his health, too, which had hitherto been excellent, gradually gave way. In 1775 he travelled for nine months in Italy with Prince Leopold of Brunswick, and in the following year he married Eva König, the widow of a Hamburg merchant, with whom he had been on terms of intimate friendship. But their happiness lasted only for a brief period; in 1778 she died in childbed.

Soon after settling in Wolfenbüttel, Lessing found in the library the manuscript of a treatise by Berengarius of Tours on transubstantiation in reply to Lanfranc. This was the occasion of Lessing's powerful essay on Berengarius, in which he vindicated the latter's character as a serious and consistent thinker. In 1771 he published his _Zerstreute Anmerkungen über das Epigramm, und einige der vornehmsten Epigrammatisten_--a work which Herder described as "itself an epigram." Lessing's theory of the origin of the epigram is somewhat fanciful, but no other critic has offered so many pregnant hints as to the laws of epigrammatic verse, or defended with so much force and ingenuity the character of Martial. In 1772 he published _Emilia Galotti_, a tragedy which he had begun many years before in Leipzig. The subject was suggested by the Roman legend of Virginia, but the scene is laid in an Italian court, and the whole play is conceived in the spirit of the "tragedy of common life." Its defect is that its tragic conclusion does not seem absolutely inevitable, but the characters--especially those of the Gräfin Orsina and Marinelli, the prince of Guastalla's chamberlain who weaves the intrigue from which Emilia escapes by death, are powerfully drawn. Having completed _Emilia Galotti_, which the younger generation of playwrights at once accepted as a model, Lessing occupied himself for some years almost exclusively with the treasures of the Wolfenbüttel library. The results of these researches he embodied in a series of volumes, _Zur Geschichte und Literatur_, the first being issued in 1773, the last in the year of his death.

The last period of Lessing's life was devoted chiefly to theological controversy. H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768), professor of oriental languages in Hamburg, who commanded general respect as a scholar and thinker, wrote a book entitled _Apologie oder Schutzschrift für die vernünftigen Verehrer Gottes_. His standpoint was that of the English deists, and he investigated, without hesitation, the evidence for the miracles recorded in the Bible. The manuscript of this work was, after the author's death, entrusted by his daughter to Lessing, who published extracts from it in his _Zur Geschichte und Literatur_ in 1774-1778. These extracts, the authorship of which was not publicly avowed, were known as the _Wolfenbütteler Fragmente_. They created profound excitement among orthodox theologians, and evoked many replies, in which Lessing was bitterly condemned for having published writings of so dangerous a tendency. His most formidable assailant was Johann Melchior Goeze (1717-1786), the chief pastor of Hamburg, a sincere and earnest theologian, but utterly unscrupulous in his choice of weapons against an opponent. To him, therefore, Lessing addressed in 1778 his most elaborate answers--_Eine Parabel_, _Axiomata_, eleven letters with the title _Anti-Goeze_, and two pamphlets in reply to an inquiry by Goeze as to what Lessing meant by Christianity. These papers are not only full of thought and learning; they are written with a grace, vivacity and energy that make them hardly less interesting to-day than they were to Lessing's contemporaries. He does not undertake to defend the conclusions of Reimarus; his immediate object is to claim the right of free criticism in regard even to the highest subjects of human thought. The argument on which he chiefly relies is that the Bible cannot be considered necessary to a belief in Christianity, since Christianity was a living and conquering power before the New Testament in its present form was recognized by the church. The true evidence for what is essential in Christianity, he contends, is its adaptation to the wants of human nature; hence the religious spirit is undisturbed by the speculations of the boldest thinkers. The effect of this controversy was to secure wider freedom for writers on theology, and to suggest new problems regarding the growth of Christianity, the formation of the canon and the essence of religion. The Brunswick government having, in deference to the consistory, confiscated the _Fragments_ and ordered Lessing to discontinue the controversy, he resolved, as he wrote to Elise Reimarus, to try "whether they would let him preach undisturbed from his old pulpit, the stage." In _Nathan der Weise_, written in the winter of 1778-1779, he gave poetic form to the ideas which he had already developed in prose. Its governing conception is that noble character may be associated with the most diverse creeds, and that there can, therefore, be no good reason why the holders of one sect of religious principles should not tolerate those who maintain wholly different doctrines. The play, which is written in blank verse, is too obviously a continuation of Lessing's theological controversy to rank high as poetry, but the representatives of the three religions--the Mahommedan Saladin, the Jew Nathan and the Christian Knight Templar--are finely conceived, and show that Lessing's dramatic instinct had, in spite of other interests, not deserted him. In 1780 appeared _Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts_, the first half of which he had published in 1777 with one of the _Fragments_. This work, composed a hundred brief paragraphs, was the last, and is one of the most suggestive of Lessing's writings. The doctrine on which its argument is based is that no dogmatic creed can be regarded as final, but that every historical religion had its share in the development of the spiritual life of mankind. Lessing also maintains that history reveals a definite law of progress, and that occasional retrogression may be necessary for the advance of the world towards its ultimate goal. These ideas formed a striking contrast to the principles both of orthodox and of sceptical writers in Lessing's day, and gave a wholly new direction to religious philosophy. Another work of Lessing's last years, _Ernst und Falk_ (a series of five dialogues, of which the first three were published in 1777, the last two in 1780), also set forth many new points of view. Its nominal subject is freemasonry, but its real aim is to plead for a humane and charitable spirit in opposition to a narrow patriotism, an extravagant respect for rank, and exclusive devotion to any particular church.

Lessing's theological opinions exposed him to much petty persecution, and he was in almost constant straits for money. Nothing, however, broke his manly and generous spirit. To the end he was always ready to help those who appealed to him for aid, and he devoted himself with growing ardour to the search for truth. He formed many new plans of work, but in the course of 1780 it became evident to his friends that he would not be able much longer to continue his labours. His health had been undermined by excessive work and anxiety, and after a short illness he died at Brunswick on the 15th of February 1781. "We lose much in him," wrote Goethe after Lessing's death, "more than we think." It may be questioned whether there is any other writer to whom the Germans owe a deeper debt of gratitude. He was succeeded by poets and philosophers who gave Germany for a time the first place in the intellectual life of the world, and it was Lessing, as they themselves acknowledged, who prepared the way for their achievements. Without attaching himself to any particular system of philosophical doctrine, he fought error incessantly, and in regard to art, poetry and the drama and religion, suggested ideas which kindled the enthusiasm of aspiring minds, and stimulated their highest energies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The first edition of Lessing's collected works, edited
by his brother Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740-1812), J. J. Eschenburg and
F. Nicolai, appeared in 26 vols. between 1791 and 1794, as a
continuation of the _Vermischte Schriften_, edited by Lessing himself
in 4 vols. (1771-1785); the _Sämtliche Schriften_, edited by Karl
Lachmann, were published in 13 vols. (1825-1828), this edition being
subsequently re-edited by W. von Maltzahn (1853-1857) and by F.
Muncker (21 vols., 1886 ff.), the last mentioned being the standard
edition of Lessing's works. Other editions are _Lessings Werke_,
published by Hempel, under the editorship of various scholars (23
vols., 1868-1877); an illustrated edition published by Grote in 8
vols. (1875, new ed., 1882); _Lessings Werke_, edited by R. Boxberger
and H. Blümner, in Kürschner's _Deutsche Nationalliteratur_, vols.
58-71 (1883-1890). There are also many popular editions. Lessing's
correspondence is included in the Lachmann editions and in that of
Hempel (edited by C. C. Redlich, 1879; _Nachträge und Berichtigungen_,
1886); his correspondence with his wife was published as early as 1789
(2 vols., new edition by A. Schöne, 1885). The chief biographies of
Lessing are by K. G. Lessing (his brother), (1793-1795, a reprint in
Reclam's _Universalbibliothek_); by J. F. Schink (1825); T. W. Danzel
and G. E. Guhrauer (1850-1853, 2nd ed. by W. von Maltzahn and R.
Boxberger, 2 vols., 1880-1881); A. Stahr (2 vols., 1859, 9th ed.,
1887); J. Sime, _Lessing, his Life and Works_ (2 vols., 1877); H.
Zimmern, _Lessing's Life and Works_ (1878); H. Düntzer, _Lessings
Leben_ (1882); E. Schmidt, _Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und
seiner Schriften_ (2 vols., 1884-1892, 3rd ed., 1910)--this is the
most complete biography; T. W. Rolleston, _Lessing_ (in "Great
Writers," 1889); K. Borinski, _Lessing_ (2 vols., 1900). Cf. also C.
Hebler, _Lessing-Studien_ (1862); A. Lehmann, _Forschungen über
Lessings Sprache_ (1875); W. Cosack, _Materialien zu Lessings
Hamburgischer Dramaturgie_ (1876, 2nd ed., 1891); H. Blümner,
_Lessings Laokoon_ (1876, 2nd ed., 1880); H. Blümner,
_Laokoon-Studien_ (2 vols., 1881-1882); K. Fischer, _Lessing als
Reformator der deutschen Literatur dargestellt_ (2 vols., 1881, 2nd
ed., 1888); B. A. Wagner, _Lessing-Forschungen_ (1881); J. W. Braun,
_Lessing im Urteile seiner Zeitgenossen_ (2 vols., 1884); P. Albrecht,
_Lessings Plagiate_ (6 vols., 1890 ff.); K. Werder, _Vorlesungen über
Lessings Nathan_ (1892); G. Kettner, _Lessings Dramen im Lichte ihrer
und unsrer Zeit_ (1904). Translations of Lessing's _Dramatic Works_ (2
vols., 1878), edited by E. Bell, and of _Laokoon, Dramatic Notes and
the Representation of Death by the Ancients_, by E. C. Beasley and H.
Zimmern (1 vol., 1879), will be found in Bohn's "Standard Library."
(J. Si.; J. G. R.)

LESSON (through Fr. _leçon_ from Lat. _lectio_, reading; _legere_, to read), properly a certain portion of a book appointed to be read aloud, or learnt for repetition, hence anything learnt or studied, a course of instruction or study. A specific meaning of the word is that of a portion of Scripture or other religious writings appointed to be read at divine service, in accordance with a table known as a "lectionary." In the Church of England the lectionary is so ordered that most of the Old Testament is read through during the year as the First Lesson at Morning and Evening Prayer, and as the Second Lesson the whole of the New Testament, except Revelation, of which only portions are read. (See LECTION and LECTIONARY.)

LESTE, a desert wind, similar to the Leveche (q.v.), observed in Madeira. It blows from an easterly direction in autumn, winter and spring, rarely in summer, and is of intense dryness, sometimes reducing the relative humidity at Funchal to below 20%. The Leste is commonly accompanied by clouds of fine red sand.

L'ESTRANGE, SIR ROGER (1616-1704), English pamphleteer on the royalist and court side during the Restoration epoch, but principally remarkable as the first English man of letters of any distinction who made journalism a profession, was born at Hunstanton in Norfolk on the 17th of December 1616. In 1644, during the civil war, he headed a conspiracy to seize the town of Lynn for the king, under circumstances which led to his being condemned to death as a spy. The sentence, however, was not executed, and after four years' imprisonment in Newgate he escaped to the Continent. He was excluded from the Act of Indemnity, but in 1653 was pardoned by Cromwell upon his personal solicitation, and lived quietly until the Restoration, when after some delay his services and sufferings were acknowledged by his appointment as licenser of the press. This office was administered by him in the spirit which might be expected from a zealous cavalier. He made himself notorious, not merely by the severity of his literary censorship, but by his vigilance in the suppression of clandestine printing. In 1663 (see NEWSPAPERS) he commenced the publication of the _Public Intelligencer_ and the _News_, from which eventually developed the famous official paper the _London Gazette_ in 1665. In 1679 he again became prominent with the _Observator_, a journal specially designed to vindicate the court from the charge of a secret inclination to popery. He discredited the Popish Plot, and the suspicion he thus incurred was increased by the conversion of his daughter to Roman Catholicism, but there seems no reason to question the sincerity of his own attachment to the Church of England. In 1687 he gave a further proof of independence by discontinuing the _Observator_ from his unwillingness to advocate James II.'s Edict of Toleration, although he had previously gone all lengths in support of the measures of the court. The Revolution cost him his office as licenser, and the remainder of his life was spent in obscurity. He died in 1704. It is to L'Estrange's credit that among the agitations of a busy political life he should have found time for much purely literary work as a translator of Josephus, Cicero, Seneca, Quevedo and other standard authors.

LESUEUR, DANIEL, the pseudonym of JEANNE LAPANZE, _née_ Loiseau (1860- ), French poet and novelist, who was born in Paris in 1860. She published a volume of poems, _Fleurs d'avril_ (1882), which was crowned by the Academy. She also wrote some powerful novels dealing with contemporary life: _Le Mariage de Gabrielle_ (1882); _Un Mystérieux Amour_ (1892), with a series of philosophical sonnets; _L'Amant de Geneviève_ (1883); _Marcelle_ (1885); _Une Vie tragique_ (1890); _Justice de femme_ (1893); _Comédienne Haine d'amour_ (1894); _Honneur d'une femme_ (1901); _La Force du passé_ (1905). Her poems were collected in 1895. She published in 1905 a book on the economic status of women, _L'Évolution féminine_; and in 1891-1893 a translation (2 vols.) of the works of Lord Byron, which was awarded a prize by the Academy. Her _Masque d'amour_, a five-act play based on her novel (1904) of the same name, was produced at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in 1905. She received the ribbon of the Legion of Honour in 1900, and the prix Vitet from the French Academy in 1905. She married in 1904 Henry Lapanze (b. 1867), a well-known writer on art.

LE SUEUR, EUSTACHE (1617-1655), one of the founders of the French Academy of painting, was born on the 19th of November 1617 at Paris, where he passed his whole life, and where he died on the 30th of April 1655. His early death and retired habits have combined to give an air of romance to his simple history, which has been decorated with as many fables as that of Claude. We are told that, persecuted by Le Brun, who was jealous of his ability, he became the intimate friend and correspondent of Poussin, and it is added that, broken-hearted at the death of his wife, Le Sueur retired to the monastery of the Chartreux and died in the arms of the prior. All this, however, is pure fiction. The facts of Le Sueur's life are these. He was the son of Cathelin Le Sueur, a turner and sculptor in wood, who placed his son with Vouet, in whose studio he rapidly distinguished himself. Admitted at an early age into the guild of master-painters, he left them to take part in establishing the academy of painting and sculpture, and was one of the first twelve professors of that body. Some paintings, illustrative of the Hypnerotomachia Polyphili, which were reproduced in tapestry, brought him into notice, and his reputation was further enhanced by a series of decorations (Louvre) in the mansion of Lambert de Thorigny, which he left uncompleted, for their execution was frequently interrupted by other commissions. Amongst these were several pictures for the apartments of the king and queen in the Louvre, which are now missing, although they were entered in Bailly's inventory (1710); but several works produced for minor patrons have come down to us. In the gallery of the Louvre are the "Angel and Hagar," from the mansion of De Tonnay Charente; "Tobias and Tobit," from the Fieubet collection; several pictures executed for the church of Saint Gervais; the "Martyrdom of St Lawrence," from Saint Germain de l'Auxerrois; two very fine works from the destroyed abbey of Marmoutiers; "St Paul preaching at Ephesus," one of Le Sueur's most complete and thorough performances, painted for the goldsmith's corporation in 1649; and his famous series of the "Life of St Bruno," executed in the cloister of the Chartreux. These last have more personal character than anything else which Le Sueur produced, and much of their original beauty survives in spite of injuries and restorations and removal from the wall to canvas. The Louvre also possesses many fine drawings (reproduced by Braun), of which Le Sueur left an incredible quantity, chiefly executed in black and white chalk His pupils, who aided him much in his work, were his wife's brother, Th. Goussé, and three brothers of his own, as well as Claude Lefebvre and Patel the landscape painter.

Most of his works have been engraved, chiefly by Picart, B. Audran,
Seb. Leclerc, Drevet, Chauveau, Poilly and Desplaces. Le Sueur's work
lent itself readily to the engraver's art, for he was a charming
draughtsman; he had a truly delicate perception of varied shades of
grave and elevated sentiment, and possessed the power to render them.
His graceful facility in composition was always restrained by a very
fine taste, but his works often fail to please completely, because,
producing so much, he had too frequent recourse to conventional types,
and partly because he rarely saw colour except with the cold and
clayey quality proper to the school of Vouet; yet his "St Paul at
Ephesus" and one or two other works show that he was not naturally
deficient in this sense, and whenever we get direct reference to
nature--as in the monks of the St Bruno series--we recognize his
admirable power to read and render physiognomy of varied and serious
type.

See Guillet de St Georges, _Mém. inéd._; C. Blanc, _Histoire des
peintres_; Vitet, _Catalogue des tableaux du Louvre_; d'Argenville,
_Vies des peintres._

LESUEUR, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1760 or 1763-1837), French musical composer, was born on the 15th of January 1760 (or 1763) at Drucat-Plessiel, near Abbeville. He was a choir boy in the cathedral of Amiens, and then became musical director at various churches. In 1786 he obtained by open competition the musical directorship of the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, where he gave successful performances of sacred music with a full orchestra. This place he resigned in 1787; and, after a retirement of five years in a friend's country house, he produced _La Caverne_ and two other operas at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris. At the foundation of the Paris Conservatoire (1795) Lesueur was appointed one of its inspectors of studies, but was dismissed in 1802, owing to his disagreements with Méhul. Lesueur succeeded G. Paisiello as _Maestro di cappella_ to Napoleon, and produced (1804) his _Ossian_ at the Opéra. He also composed for the emperor's coronation a mass and a Te Deum. Louis XVIII., who had retained Lesueur in his court, appointed him (1818) professor of composition at the Conservatoire; and at this institution he had, among many other pupils, Hector Berlioz, Ambroise Thomas, Louis Désiré, Besozzi and Charles Gounod. He died on the 6th of October 1837. Lesueur composed eight operas and several masses, and other sacred music. All his works are written in a style of rigorous simplicity.

See Raoul Rochette, _Les Ouvrages de M. Lesueur_ (Paris, 1839).

LE TELLIER, MICHEL (1603-1685), French statesman, was born in Paris on the 19th of April 1603. Having entered the public service he became maître des requêtes and in 1640 intendant of Piedmont; in 1643, owing to his friendship with Mazarin, he became secretary of state for military affairs, being an efficient administrator. In 1677 he was made chancellor of France and he was one of those who influenced Louis XIV. to revoke the Edict of Nantes. He died on the 30th of October 1685, a few days after the revocation had been signed. Le Tellier, who amassed great wealth, left two sons, one the famous statesman Louvois and another who became archbishop of Reims. His correspondence is in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris.

See L. Caron, _Michel Le Tellier, intendant d'armée au Piémont_
(Paris, 1881).

Another MICHEL LE TELLIER (1643-1719) Was confessor of the French king Louis XIV. Born at Vire on the 16th of December 1643 he entered the Society of Jesus and later became prominent in consequence of his violent attacks on the Jansenists. He was appointed provincial of his order in France, but it was not until 1709 that he became the king's confessor. In this capacity all his influence was directed towards urging Louis to further persecutions of the Protestants. He was exiled by the regent Orleans, but he had returned to France when he died at La Flèche on the 2nd of September 1719.

LETHAL (Lat. _lethalis_, for _letalis_, deadly, from _letum_, death; the spelling is due to a confusion with Gr. [Greek: lêthê], forgetfulness), an adjective meaning "deadly," "fatal," especially as applied to weapons, drugs, &c. A "lethal chamber" is a room or receptacle in which animals may be put to death painlessly, by the admission of poisonous gases.

LETHARGY (Gr. [Greek: lêthargia], from [Greek: lêthê], forgetfulness), drowsiness, torpor. In pathology the term is used of a morbid condition of deep and lasting sleep from which the sufferer can be with difficulty and only temporarily aroused. The term Negro or African lethargy was formerly applied to the disease now generally known as "sleeping sickness" (q.v.).

LETHE ("Oblivion"), in Greek mythology, the daughter of Eris (Hesiod, _Theog._ 227) and the personification of forgetfulness. It is also the name of a river in the infernal regions. Those initiated in the mysteries were taught to distinguish two streams in the lower world, one of memory and one of oblivion. Directions for this purpose, written on a gold plate, have been found in a tomb at Petilia, and near Lebadeia, at the oracle of Trophonius, which was counted an entrance to the lower world, the two springs Mnemosyne and Lethe were shown (Pausanias ix. 39. 8). This thought begins to appear in literature in the end of the 5th century B.C., when Aristophanes (_Frogs_, 186) speaks of the plain of Lethe. Plato (_Rep._ x.) embodies the idea in one of his finest myths.

LE TRÉPORT, a maritime town of northern France in the department of Seine-Inférieure, on the English Channel, at the mouth of the Bresle, 114 m. N.N.W. of Paris on the Northern railway. Pop. (1906) 4619. Owing to its nearness to the capital, Le Tréport is a favourite watering-place of the Parisians. A good view is obtained from Mont Huon, which rises to the south-west of the town. The mouth of the Bresle forms a small port, comprising an outer tidal harbour and an inner dock accessible to vessels drawing from 13 to 16 ft. The fisheries and oyster parks with their dependent industries, shipbuilding and glass manufacture, furnish the chief occupations of the inhabitants. Coal, timber, ice and jute are imported; _articles de Paris_, sugar, &c., are exported. The chief buildings are the church of St Jacques (16th century), which has finely carved vaulting and good modern stained glass, and the casino erected 1896-1897. About 1 m. north-east of Le Tréport is the small bathing resort of Mers. The Eu-Tréport canal, uniting the two towns, has a length of about 3 m., and is navigable by vessels drawing 14 ft. Le Tréport (the ancient _Ulterior Portus_) was a port of some note in the middle ages and suffered from the English invasions. Louis Philippe twice received Queen Victoria here.

LETRONNE, JEAN ANTOINE (1787-1848), French archaeologist, was born at Paris on the 25th of January 1787. His father, a poor engraver, sent him to study art under the painter David, but his own tastes were literary, and he became a student in the Collège de France, where it is said he used to exercise his already strongly developed critical faculty by correcting for his own amusement old and bad texts of Greek authors, afterwards comparing the results with the latest and most approved editions. From 1810 to 1812 he travelled in France, Switzerland and Italy, and on his return to Paris published an _Essai critique sur la topographie de Syracuse_ (1812), designed to elucidate Thucydides. Two years later appeared his _Recherches géographiques et critiques on the De Mensura Orbis Terrae_ of Dicuil. In 1815 he was commissioned by government to complete the translation of Strabo which had been begun by Laporte-Dutheil, and in March 1816 he was one of those who were admitted to the Academy of Inscriptions by royal ordinance, having previously contributed a _Mémoire_, "On the Metrical System of the Egyptians," which had been crowned. Further promotion came rapidly; in 1817 he was appointed director of the École des Chartes, in 1819 inspector-general of the university, and in 1831 professor of history in the Collège de France. This chair he exchanged in 1838 for that of archaeology, and in 1840 he succeeded Pierre C. François Daunou (1761-1840) as keeper of the national archives. Meanwhile he had published, among other works, _Considérations générales sur l'évaluation des monnaies grecques et romaines et sur la valeur de l'or et de l'argent avant la découverte de l'Amérique_ (1817), _Recherches pour servir à l'histoire d'Égypte pendant la domination des Grecs et des Romains_ (1823), and _Sur l'origine grecque des zodiaques prétendus égyptiens_ (1837). By the last-named he finally exploded a fallacy which had up to that time vitiated the chronology of contemporary Egyptologists. His _Diplômes et Chartres de l'époque Mérovingienne sur papyrus et sur vélin_ were published in 1844. The most important work of Letronne is the _Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines de l'Égypte_, of which the first volume appeared in 1842, and the second in 1848. He died at Paris on the 14th of December 1848.