877 



LIBANIUS. 



LICHTENBEKG, GEORGE CHRISTOPHER. 



878 



made the excursion together, both clad more like princes than artists. 

 It was a succession of feasts, and Lucas repeated the entertainment of 

 Middelburg at Ghent, at Antwerp, and at Mechlin. H- however was 

 not less energetic in his pleasures than at his work, and he indulged 

 during this excursion in a round of dissipation which appears to have 

 lasting); injured his constitution : he was never well afterwards. His 

 own vanity led him to account for his illness by the supposition that 

 some of hU rivals whom he had entertained had endeavoured to poison 

 him, and be adiled to his malady by indulgence and despondency. Ho 

 allowed his mind to fall into such a morbid state that his physical 

 strength left him, and he passed nearly the whole of the last few years 

 of his life in bed, or at least in the sick-room, still however working 

 at occasional intervals. lie died in 1533, aged only thirty-nine. 



Lucas's pictures are very scarce ; they are in the old Flemish stjle, 

 but are among the best works of that school. They are earnest, 

 expressive, deeply coloured, and executed with great care ; and are 

 b-autiful and highly interesting, notwithstanding their gothic forms 

 and arrangement : in the perspective of colour they are in advance of 

 their time. The galleries of Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, and Munich 

 possess a few good pictures by Lucas; his own portrait is in the 

 Berlin Gallery. There is a very small carious picture by him in the 

 collection of tlie Duke of Devonshire, at Devonshire House ; it repre- 

 sents a man having a tooth drawn, while a woman is picking his 

 pocket : there is a print of it, of the same size, by Lucas himself, 

 dated 1523- There is a picture also by Lucas at Wilton House, and 

 another at the Liverpool Institution. A picture of the ' Last Judg- 

 ment,' one of his moat remarkable works, is still in the town-house 

 at Leyden. The print of ' Eulenspiegel,' a notorious clown or jester 

 of the 1 4th century, is the rarest engraving in existence : there are 

 caid to be not more than five or six of the original extant, but it Las 

 often been copied, and the first copy was made in 1644 by Hondius, 

 when the price of the original, even at that early time, was fifty ducats ; 

 it it about six and a half inches high and rather morn than five 

 wide. Bartsch, who published a distinct catalogue of the prints of 

 Lucas van Leyden, describes 174 engravings by him; in all, including 

 wood-cuts, his prints amount probably to about 200. 



(Van Mander, llct Leven der SchUdera ; Bartsch, Catalogue Raisonnc 

 de toula let Etampa qui forwent FCL'um-c dt Luccu dt Leyde, and 

 Peintrt Grateur, vol. vii. ; Huber, Manuel da Amateurt, d-c. ; Von 

 Quandt, Entviirft zu einer Geidiichte der Kupferttecher-kuntt ; Van 

 Kynden and Van der Willigen, Getckiedenii der Vaterlantochc Schilder- 

 kunit, <tc.) 



LIBA'NICS, a celebrated teacher of rhetoric, was born at Antioch 

 in Syria, in 314, of an ancient and noble family. After pursuing his 

 studies with great diligence in bis native city, he repaired to Athens, 

 where he remained four years. He taught the arts of rhetoric and 

 declamation at Athens, Constantinople, and Nicomedia, in succession ; 

 but being obliged to leave these places in consequence of the opposition 

 of rival teachers who envied his superior talents, he returned in 354 to 

 Antioch, where he chiefly resided during the remainder of his Ufa He 

 was considered the most eminent rhetorician of his age ; his school 

 was frequented by numerous pupils, and he numbered among his 

 disciples John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopauestis, The Emperor 

 Julian was a great admirer of his works ; he imitated his style in his 

 own writings, and after his accession to the empire formed an intimate 

 friendship with the rhetorician, and bestowed upon him the dignity 

 of quicstor. It is related by Kunapius ('De Vit. Philoaop. et Soph.,' 

 p. 135) that one of the emperors (probably Theodosius the Great) 

 gave him the honorary rank of prtetect of the prajtorium, but that it 

 was declined by Libanius as a less illustrious title than that of Sophist. 

 Libanius was alive in the year 390, since he mentions in a letter to 

 1'riscus (' Ep.' 866) that he was then seventy-six years of age. 



Libanius was a pagan, and many of his works are written in defence 

 of the heathen religion ; yet this did not prevent his being on good 

 terms with St. Basil. [BASIL.] There is a curious speech of his still 

 extant addressed to the Emperor Theodosiui respecting the heathen 

 temples, which has been translated into English by Dr. Lardner, in the 

 eighth volume of his ' Credibility of the Gospel History.' 



Most of the writings of Libanius have come down to us ; they are 

 chiefly declamations on the leading events of Greek history, and are 

 characterised by Gibbon as the " vain and idle compositions of au 

 orator who cultivated the science of words; the productions of a 

 recluse student, whose mind, regardless of his contemporaries, was 

 incessantly fixed on the Trojan war and the Athenian commonwealth." 

 His oratorical works and moral treatises were published by Morel, 2 

 Tola, foL, Far., 1606-27. The best edition of his declamations is by 

 Ueiske, 4 vols. 8vo, Leip., 1791. The letters of Libanius, which amount 

 to more than 1600, were published by Wolf, fol., Amst., 1738. 



* LIBKLT, KAROL, a Polish philosophical and political writer, 

 born at Poeea in 1*06, was educated there and at Berlin, where in the 

 second year of his studies at the university he obtained a prize for a 

 Latin dissertation, ' Do Pantheismo.' After receiving bis degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy, be weut in 1830 to Paris, and at the close of 

 the same year to Warsaw, where he took a part in the national insur- 

 rection; and served during the ensuing war, first as an artilleryman, 

 thi n as ao officer of artillery. At its conclusion he gave his attention 

 for some time to farming in Posen, and it was not till 1840 that he 

 appeared again in literature. He was part editor of a weekly periodical, 



the ' Tygodnik Literaoki,' resembling the ' Literary Gazette ;' then of 

 a quarterly collection of essays entitled ' Rok,' or ' The Year,' which 

 received the contributions of the most distinguished writers in Prussian 

 Poland. In the year 1846 he was implicated in the democratic con- 

 spiracy of Mieroslawski, and, after more than a year's imprisonment, 

 was still awaiting his trial in Berlin when unexpectedly released in 

 1848 by the March revolution. He was elected a member of the 

 Slavonic Congress which met at Prague, of the Prussian Second 

 Chamber, and of the German Parliament at Frankfurt, all three of 

 which ended in failure. He then established a newspaper at Posen, 

 under the title of ' Dziennik Polski" ('The Polish Journal"), which was 

 suppressed in consequence of the re-action. A collection of his smaller 

 writings, ' Piama Pomniejse,' was published at Posen in six volumes, 

 1849-52. The political ones are written in a moderate tone, and not 

 remarkable for either wideness of view or elevation of sentiment. He 

 speaks, for instance, of the war commenced by the United States 

 against Mexico as offering a favourable opportunity for France to 

 depress England. His philosophical and critical works are of a higher 

 character, and his name is placed with that of Trentkowski at the head 

 of Polish writers on these subjects. One of his works, the ' Dziewica 

 Orleanska," or ' Maid of Orleans,' was composed when in prison at 

 Berlin. 



LI'BERI, PIETRO, Cavaliere, was a celebrated painter of Padua, 

 where he was born in 1605. He was the pupil of Padovanino, and is 

 considered by some the b:st draftsman of the Venetian school of 

 painters. He studied iu Rome, at Parma, and in Venice, and his 

 works are not distinguished by the peculiar characteristics of any 

 particular school, but are equally conspicuous to a certain degree for 

 the qualities of all. There are several great works by him, as the 

 'Slaughter of the Innocents,' at Venice; ' Noah leaving the Ark,' at 

 Vicenza; and the ' Deluge,' at Bergamo : he executed also many works 

 in Germany. He was very fond of painting the nude, and particularly 

 naked Veuuses, which from their character acquired him the name 

 of Libertino. Liberi had two manners ; at one time he was bold and 

 careless, and at another minute and laborious. This variety hs 

 explained to be intentional : he said that for the expert and intelligent 

 he painted freely, but for the iguorant he finished highly. He died iu 

 1687. (Zinetti, Delia, P'Mura Veneziana ; Lanzi, Stona Pittorica, etc.) 



LIBE'RIUS was elected to succeed Julius I. in the see of Rome in 

 353. The Semi-Arians, countenanced by the Emperor Coustantius, 

 had then the ascendant; and both the council of Aries (353), and that 

 of Milan (355), condemned Athauasius, bishop of Alexandria. As 

 Liberius, together with some other western bishops, refused to sub- 

 scribe to this condemnation, he was arrested by order of the emperor, 

 and taken to Milan, where he held a conference with Constantius. 

 The questions and answers in this conference are still extant in 

 Constant's ' Epistolw Romanorum Poutificum.' The conference ter- 

 minated in a sentence from the emperor deposing Liberius from his 

 office, and banishing him to Beroea iu Macedonia. The emperor caused 

 Felix, a deacon at Rome, to be consecrated bishop. A petition was 

 presented to the emperor by the principal ladies of Rome in favour of 

 Liberius, but it was not till 358 that Liberius was restored to his see, 

 and not without having first approved in several letters of the depo- 

 sition of Athanasius, and subscribed to the confession of faith drawn 

 up by the court party at the council of Sirmium. The weakness of 

 Liberius had a mischievous influence upon many of the Italian bishops, 

 and the council of Rimini openly countenanced Arianism ; but it is 

 not true, as asserted by some, tbat Liberius subscribed the Rimini 

 confession of faith. He ended his career in orthodoxy, and died in 

 366. He was succeeded by Damasus I. Liberius is said to have built 

 the Basilica on the Esquiline Mount, which has been called Liberiana, 

 from his name, and is now known by the nainj of Santa Maria 

 Maggiore. 



LICHTENBERG, GEORGE CHRISTOPHER, deserves a place in 

 every English biographical work, if only on account of his admirable 

 ' Erkhiruug der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche,' wherein he has entered 

 far more completely into the spirit of our great artist's works, than 

 any of his English illustrators and commentators, scarcely excepting 

 Charles Lamb, whose ' Essay on Hogarth ' is besides a mere sketch in 

 comparison with the extensive canvass filled up by the German. Had 

 he written nothing else of a humorous nature, this production would 

 have established Lichteuberg's reputation for searching keenness of 

 wit, comic power, and for both playful and severe satire. Unfor- 

 tunately however he did not live to complete his work. 



Lichtenberg was born at Ober-Ramstadt, near Darmstadt, July 1st, 

 1742, and was his parents' eighteenth child. By his father, who was 

 the pastor of the place, he was early initiated into mathematical and 

 physical studies, in which he afterwards greatly diitinguished himself. 

 On the death of his father he pursued his studies, first at Darmstadt, 

 afterwards at Gottingen, at which university he was appointed to a 

 professorship in 1770. Although then only in his twenty-seventh year, 

 he was well qualified for the office bestowed on him, such having been 

 his assiduity that there was scarcely any branch of learning or science 

 with which he was unacquainted. Just before his promotion he had 

 made a visit to England, where he had the honour of being introduced 

 to George II 1., and was noticed by the leading men of science in that 

 day. The favourable reception he had met with induced him to pay 

 a second visit to this country in 1774, preparatory to which he had 



