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LANSDOWNE LANZI. 



LANSDOWNE, WILLIAM PETTY, marquis of, 

 was born in 1737. He succeeded to the Irish title 

 of earl of Shelburne, on the death of his father, in 

 1761, and, in 1763, obtained the office of president of 

 the board of trade, which he resigned to join the 

 opposition led by Mr Pitt (lord Chatham), with whom 

 he returned to office in 1766. When a change of 

 ministry took place, in 1768, he was again displaced, 

 ;nd continued to be a parliamentary antagonist of 

 ministers till 1782, when he was nominated secretary 

 of state for the foreign department. On the death of 

 the premier, the marquis of Rockingham, he was 

 succeeded by lord Shelburne, who was soon obliged 

 to give way to the coalition between lord North and 

 Mr Fox. In 1784, he became an English peer, by 

 the titles of marquis of Lansdowne and earl of 

 Wyeombe. He now employed himself in the cultiva- 

 tion of science and literature, and collected a valuable 

 library, the MSS. belonging to which were, after his 

 death, purchased for the British museum. His death 

 took place in 1805. Lord Lansdowne was twice 

 married. By his second wife, lady Louisa Fitzpatrick, 

 he became the father of the present marquis. 



LANTERN (latcrna, Lat.; lanterne, Fr.) ; a com- 

 mon contrivance to carry a lamp or candle in, being 

 a kind of cover usually made of tin, with sashes of 

 some transparent matter, as glass, horn, &c., to 

 transmit the light. Theopompus, a Greek comic poet, 

 and Empedocles of Agrigentum, are the first who 

 have spoken of this kind of illumination. In the 

 Antiquites d' Herculanium, vol. viii., will be found 

 represented a collection of ancient lanterns, one of 

 which, of a round form, was discovered in one of the 

 great roads of Herculaneum, in 1760, and another, 

 1764, at Pompeii, in the vestibule of a house, by 

 the side of a human skeleton. The use to which 

 these instruments were put was various. A modern 

 author has stated, without sufficient proof, however, 

 that the games of the circus, at Rome, and the 

 sacred games in Greece, were celebrated by this 

 kind of light. Plutarch expressly says that they 

 were used in augury. It is more certain still that 

 they were common among the military, and were 

 always carried before any troops who had to march 

 by night. These were borne upon the top of a pike, 

 and were constructed of a fashion to throw light only 

 behind them. 



Dark Lantern ; one with only a single opening, 

 which may also be closed up when the light is to be 

 entirely hidden, or opened when there is occasion for 

 its assistance to discover some object. See Magic 

 Lantern. 



Feast of Lanterns, in China ; a celebrated feast 

 held on the 15th day of the first month, and thus 

 denominated from the immense number of lanterns 

 hung out of the houses, and in the streets, the num- 

 ber of which has been reported even to exceed 

 200,000,000. Some of these have been valued at 

 2000 crowns. They are adorned with gilding, paint- 

 ing, japanning, sculpture, &c. The size of many of 

 these lanterns is represented to be quite huge : some 

 reach nearly thirty feet in diameter. They are con- 

 structed so as to resemble halls or chambers; and 

 two or three such machines together would make a 

 handsome house; so that the Chinese eat, lodge, 

 receive visits, have balls, and act plays, in a lantern. 

 They light up in them an infinite number of torches 

 or lamps, which at a distance, have a beautiful effect. 

 In these they exhibit various kinds of shows to divert 

 the people. Besides these enormous machines, there 

 is a multitude of smaller ones, which usually consist 

 of six faces or lights, eacli about four feet high, anc 

 one and a half broad, framed in wood, finely gilt anc 

 adorned : over these they stretch a fine transparent 

 silk, curiously painted with flowers, trees, and some- 



imes with human figures : the painting is very 

 ixiraordinury, and the colours extremely bright ; 

 ind when the torches are lighted, the appearance is 

 exceedingly striking and lively. 



In architecture, lantern signifies a little dome raised 

 over the roof of a building, to give light, and serve 

 as a sort of crowning to the fabric. The same term 

 s likewise used for a square cage of carpentry placed 

 over the ridge of a corridor or gallery, between two 

 rows of shops (as in the royal exchange, London), to 

 'llumine them. 



The lantern, on ship-board, is a well-known ma- 

 chine, of which there are many in a ship, particularly 

 br the purpose of directing the course of other ships 

 in a fleet or convoy ; such as the poop and top- 

 antern. 



LANTERN FLY (fulgord); a genus of insects, 

 belonging to the hemiptera, and closely allied to the 

 locusts and grasshoppers, from which it is distin- 

 guished by the great prolongation of the head. Few 

 circumstances are more remarkable than the phos- 

 phoric light emitted by some insects, as by the glow- 

 worm and fire-fly, but more especially by the species 

 under consideration. This is said to possess this 

 lucid quality in so eminent a degree, as to be used by 

 the inhabitants of the countries where they are found, 

 for the purposes of illumination. The largest of these 

 insects is the F. laternaria, which is found in great 

 abundance in South America. Madame Merian gives 

 an entertaining account of the alarm into which she 

 was thrown by the light produced from them, before 

 she was apprized of their shining nature. It appears 

 the Indians brought her a number of the lantern flies, 

 shut up in a box. During the night, they made such 

 a noise, that they awoke her, and induced her to 

 open the box, when, to her astonishment and affright, 

 a strong light proceeded from it, and as many of the 

 insects as left it, so many flames appeared. There 

 are many other species of these flies, one of which 

 the Chinese almost equals the South American in 

 splendour. In both of those, the light proceeds from 

 the elongated and hollow part of the head, no other 

 portion of the animal being luminous. A full account 

 of all the species will be found in Fabricius, Syst. 

 Rhyng.j and Olivier, Encycl. Method, article Ful- 

 gore. 



LANZI, LUIGI, the celebrated archaiologist, was 

 born at Treia, in the Mark of Ancona, in June, 1731, 

 and became a pupil of the Jesuits, and a member of 

 the order. He made himself master of the whole 

 field of classical studies, and the ruins of Rome 

 awakened his curiosity to the examination of the 

 remains of ancient art, in treating of which, lie 

 evinced profound learning and critical acuteness. 

 From Rome, Lanzi went to Florence, and made him- 

 self acquainted with all the masterpieces of art col- 

 lected there. In 1782, he published a Guida della 

 Galleria di Firenze, on which he laboured during the 

 rest of his life. This work not only satisfied the 

 inquirer by its extensive learning, but amused the 

 mere searcher after pleasure, by its pleasing descrip- 

 tions. He was chosen president of the Crusca, in 

 1807, on account of the purity of his language. A 

 patriotic feeling had engaged Lanzi in the study of 

 Etruscan antiquity, which was then little cultivated. 

 Learned Tuscans, in the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, had attempted to elevate Etruscan civiliza- 

 tion, by maintaining that the Etruscan religion and 

 mythology were entirely unaffected by Grecian in- 

 fluence. Lanzi's researches led him to form a different 

 opinion. The remains of the Etruscan language and 

 art denoted, in his opinion, a Grecian origin., and, 

 disclaiming all national vanity, he openly maintained 

 the prevailing influence of Greece on Etruscan civi- 

 lization. German scholars have adopted his opinion. 



