LAIS LALANDE. 



351 



particularly distinguished by the high finish with 

 which his pictures are executed, and is considered 

 the Raphael of the Dutch school ; nor have any of 

 liis countrymen ever equalled him in historical paint- 

 ing. This talented artist was also a good engraver, 

 and understood music scientifically, while of his 

 literary abilities he has left a favourable specimen, 

 in a treatise on the principles of his art. He survived 

 the loss of his sight some years, and died, at length, 

 at Amsterdam, in 1711. His book has been trans- 

 lated into English. His three brothers, Ernest, 

 John, and James Lairesse, were artists of some note, 

 the two former excelling in the delineation of ani- 

 mals, the latter in flowers. Two of his sons also 

 followed the profession of their father, but with infe- 

 rior ability. 



LAIS; a celebrated courtesan, daughter of Ti- 

 mandra, the mistress of Alcibiades, born at Hyccara, 

 in Sicily. She was carried away from her native 

 country to Greece, when Nicias, the Athenian ge- 

 neral, invaded Sicily. She began to sell her favours 

 at Corinth for 10,000 drachmas, and an immense 

 number of princes, noblemen, philosophers, orators, 

 and plebeians, did homage to her charms. The high 

 price which she demanded of her lovers gave rise to 

 tlie proverb Non cuivis homini contingit adire Co- 

 rinthum. Even Demosthenes himself visited Corinth 

 for the sake of Lais; but when he heard the courtesan 

 name her price (a sum equal to about 212, 10s.), 

 the orator departed, and observed that he would not 

 buy repentance at so dear a rate. The charms which 

 had attracted Demosthenes had no influence upon 

 Xenocrates, although Lais (Phryne ?), seeing the 

 philosopher unmoved by her beauty, visited his house 

 herself. Diogenes the cynic was one of her warmest 

 admirers, and, though slovenly in his dress and 

 manners, yet he gained her heart. Lais ridiculed 

 the austerity of philosophers, observing that the 

 sages and philosophers of the age were found at 

 her door as often as the rest of the Athenians. 

 The success which she met at Corinth encouraged 

 her to pass into Thessaly, particularly to enjoy the 

 company of a favourite youth called Hippostratus ; 

 but the women of the place, jealous of her charms, 

 and apprehensive of her corrupting the fidelity of 

 their husbands, assassinated her in the temple of 

 Venus, about 340 years before the Christian era. 

 Pausanias mentions another Lais, likewise a courtesan. 



LAIUS. See (Edipus. 



LAKE. Lakes are large bodies of inland water, 

 having no direct communication with seas or the 

 ocean, or communicating with them only by rivers, 

 by which they pour out their superabundant waters. 

 Some lakes have no issue, and receive no streams ; 

 but these are generally very small. Some have 

 outlets, but receive no running waters ; these are fed 

 by springs which are thus obliged to fill up a basin 

 before their waters can find their way downward 

 towards the lower country. Others receive and 

 discharge large rivers, and sometimes a chain of 

 lakes are connected with each other, and with the 

 sea, by a series of rivers. This is the case with the 

 great lakes on the northern frontier of Amiens', which 

 are, in reality, a series of large basins or reservoirs, 

 receiving the accumulated waters of the surrounding 

 countries, and pouring them out through successive 

 channels into other basins situated on a lower level. 

 (See the articles Superior, Huron, &c.) Another 

 class of lakes receive large streams or rivers, but 

 have no visible or apparent outlet. The Caspian sea, 

 lake Titicaca, &c., are examples of this kind. These 

 masses of water are sometimes drained by subter- 

 raneous streams, and are sometimes kept at their 

 ordinary level by the ordinary process of evapora- 

 tion. Some lakes are raised to a great height above 



the level of the sea. Lake Superior is 641 feet 

 above the ocean. The svaters of lakes are generally 

 sweet, but there are some, such as the Caspian, &c., 

 which are salt. All the great American lakes are of 

 fresh water. 



LAKE OF THE WOODS, or DU BOIS ; a lake 

 of North America, seventy miles long, and forty 

 wide. Large quantities of oak, fir, pine, spruce, &c. , 

 grow on its banks ; hence its name. It contains 

 a few small islands, and communicates with lake 

 Winnipeg, which discliarges its waters into Hudson's 

 bay. Lon. 95 20' W.; Fat. 54 W N. 



LALANDE, JOSEPH JEROME LE FRANSAIS DE, 

 one of the most distinguished astronomers of the last 

 century, was born of a respectable family, at Bourg 

 en Bresse, in France, July 11, 1732. Educated with 

 a minute attention to religious duties, he displayed 

 his abilities when very young, by composing sermons 

 and mystical romances. The remarkable comet of 

 1744 first drew his attention to the heavenly bodies ; 

 and his taste for astronomy was fixed by the observa- 

 tions of father Beraud, mathematical professor at the 

 college of Lyons, on the great eclipse of July 27, 

 1748. He wished to become a Jesuit, that he might 

 devote himself entirely to study ; but his friends, 

 objecting to this plan, sent him to Paris, where he 

 studied the law, and was admitted an advocate. He 

 became acquainted with Delisle, who had established 

 an observatory in the house in which he resided, and 

 obtained permission to assist him in his operations. 

 He also attended the lectures on astronomy delivered 

 by Messier, at the college de France, and obtained 

 the friendly patronage of Lemonnier, who lectured 

 on natural philosophy at the same college. The 

 academy sent him to Berlin to make observations 

 for the purpose of determining the parallax of the 

 moon, while Lacaille went to the cape of Good 

 Hope for the same purpose. At the sight of so young 

 an astronomer (for he was scarcely nineteen years of 

 age), Frederic the Great could not conceal his 

 astonishment. Lalande, however, proved himself 

 worthy of the choice of the academy at Paris, and 

 was not only received at court, but was made a 

 member of the academy of Berlin. After having 

 finished his operations at Berlin, he was chosen 

 member of the academy of sciences in Paris, in the 

 year 1753. Thenceforward no volume of their 

 transactions appeared which did not contain some 

 important communications from him ; nor did he 

 confine his labours to astronomical subjects merely. 

 The French are indebted to him also for an edition 

 of Halley's tables, as well as for the historical account 

 of the comet of 1759. For the identifying of this 

 remarkable comet, he presented to Clairault the 

 deepest and most ingenious calculations. As the 

 editor of the Connaissance des Temps, he entirely 

 changed the plan and management of this useful 

 work, and thereby set a good example to his succes- 

 sors. In 1761, he produced a chart, which showed 

 the phases of the remarkable transit of Venus over 

 the sun's disk for all places on the globe. In 1764, 

 he published his Astronomic a classical work, which 

 was afterwards printed in three volumes quarto, and 

 reached the third edition, and of which he made an 

 abridgment (Abrege d' Astronomic , published at Paris 

 in 1795) a work which cannot be too highly recom- 

 mended to lovers of this science. In 1765 and 1766, 

 he made a journey to Italy; a description of which 

 (in eight vols. 12mo) contains much valuable infor- 

 mation. He composed all the astronomical articles 

 for the great Encyclopedic, and also wrote them 

 anew for the Encyclopedic methodique. In 1761, he 

 succeeded to his first instructor, Lemonnier, in the 

 astronomical professorship of the college de France, 

 where he knew how to give to his lectures a peculiar 



