440 



I.l'NM LENAPE LENTIL. 



bequeathed to Voltaire, (lien a young man, \\ 

 fMO"H rfn> to\ foreseen, a considerable --i.in. \\iin-li 

 be was to expend in hooks. One oi Ninon's suns, 

 named La Moiasiirr, died, in I7.W, at Toulon, an 

 officer in the navy. His birth was distinguished by 

 a dupute between ail onVer and Henry man re-j-ect- 

 iag UM paternity. As the matter was doubtful, it 

 was decided by lot, and the officer obtained the 

 paternal title. Ninon's second son died a tragic 

 lit- lia>l fallen in love with his own mother, 

 \viiliotit knowing his relationship to her. She was 

 ol> i^'-tl to reveal Uie secret to him, to escape his 

 iin|H>rtimities, and he killed himself from despair. 

 This terrible event Itns been introduced, by Le Sage, 

 into his tiil Bias. Ninon, moreover, confessed her- 

 self, tluit she was not happy, and often said, that, if 

 she had foreseen her course of life, she would rather 

 have undergone a voluntary death, than have sub- 

 mitted to such a destiny. The Lettres de N. de 

 Isenclos an Marquis de Sevignv are the work of 

 Damonrs, the author of the lite prefixed to the col- 

 lection. The Correspondence secrete de, &c., edited 

 by Segur (1789), is also a supposititious work. 



LENN1 LENAPE. See Indians, and Indian 

 Languages. 



LENOTRE, ANDREW ; a French architect and 

 ornamental gardener. He was bom at Paris, in 

 KU3, and was the son of the superintendent of the 

 gardens of the Tuileries, who, wishing to make him 

 an artist, placed him, as a pupil, with Vouet, the 

 painter. He showed a strong taste for design, par- 

 ticularly in laying out gardens, and arranging their 

 scenery. He first displayed his talents at the chateau 

 de Vaux ; but his plans for the decoration of the park 

 of Versailles contributed principally to establish his 

 reputation. He afterwards embellished the gardens 

 of Clugny, Chantilly, St Cloud, Sceaux, the Tuileries, 

 &c. Louis XIV. richly rewarded the labours of 

 Lenotre, and, in 1675, bestowed on him letters of 

 nobility, and the cross of the order of St Michael. 

 He took a journey to Italy in 1678 ; and, at Rome, 

 he was honourably received by pope Innocent XI. 

 He died, at Paris, in 1700. Delille has celebrated 

 the talents of Lenotre, whose style of ornamental 

 planting was fashionable, not only in France, but in 

 iiritain, till it was superseded by the designs of Kent, 

 Brown, and the modern landscape gardeners. 



LENS, in dioptrics, properly signifies a small, 

 roundish glass, of the figure of a lentil, but is extend- 

 ed to any optic glass, not very thick, which either 

 collects the rays of light into a point, in their passage 

 through it, or makes them diverge, according to the 

 laws of refraction. Lenses have various figures, that 

 is, are terminated by various surfaces, from which 

 they acquire various names. Some are plane on one 

 side, and convex on the other; others convex on both 

 sides, both of which are ordinarily called convex lenses, 

 though, where we speak accurately, the former is 

 called piano convex. Again, some are plane on one 

 side, and concave on the other ; and others are con- 

 cave on both sides ; which are both usually ranked 

 among the concave lenses ; though, when distin- 

 guished, the former is called a plano-concave. Others, 

 again, are concave on one side, and convex on the 

 other, which have the name meniscus. In every 

 lens, terminated in any of the fore-mentioned man- 

 ners, a right line, perpendicular to the, two surfaces, 

 is called the axis of the lens, which axis, when both 

 surfaces are spherical, passes through both their 

 centres ; but if one of them be plane, it falls perpen- 

 dicularly upon that, and goes through the centre of 

 the other. See Optics. 



L E NT, a Teutonic word ; in Oermnn, Lenz (the 

 Fpring) ; in Swiss, Glens; in Dutch, Lent. Several 

 derivations of the word have i>een proposed Adelung 



thinks that it is probably connected with the German 

 verb Ifinru (to thaw). In English, Lent means the 

 quadragesimal last in spring, which, in Italian, is 

 called </uurt'.*:in(t ; in French, carcme, from the Latin 

 i/Huilru^funnii. In the article Fasts, the subject of 

 fasting, in general, and the fasts and days of abstin- 

 ence observed by the Roman church have been 

 treated of. Lent is a fa^t intended to prepare Chris- 

 tians for the Easter festival. Protestants generally 

 consider Lent not to have been established before the 

 second or third century ; but the Catholic church 

 maintains, with St Jerome, St Leo, St Augustine, and 

 the nuijority of the fathers of the church of the 

 fourth and fifth centuries, that it is of apostolic origin. 

 They reason thus: that which we find universally 

 established in the church, and of which we cannot, 

 nevertheless, find the institution by a council, must 

 have been established by the apostles ; and the 

 sixty-ninth apostolical canon, the council of Nice, in 

 325, that of Laodicea in 365, and the fathers of the 

 second and third centuries, speak of Lent as a usage 

 generally observed by the church. In the Latin 

 church, Lent formerly lasted but thirty-six days; in 

 the fifth century, four days were added, in imitation 

 of the forty days' fast of the Saviour, and this usage 

 became general in the Western church, except in the 

 church of Milan. (See Dictionnaire de TAeologie, 

 article Careme.) The Greeks begin Lent one week 

 sooner than the Roman Catholics, but they do not fast 

 on Sundays, except in passion-week, though their 

 fasts, generally speaking, are much more strict than 

 those of the Roman Catholics. The Latin monks had 

 formerly three fasts, of forty days each ; and the 

 Greeks observed four besides Lent ; but they have 

 reduced them to seven days each. Some Oriental 

 sects had still other great fasts. The eighth council 

 of Toledo, in 653, orders that those who break the 

 fast, without necessity, shall eat no meat during the 

 whole year, and shall not partake of the Lord's sup- 

 per at Easter. The bishop must give the sick and 

 aged permission to eat animal food during Lent. 

 Such permissions are, however, generally put into the 

 hands of physicians, from whom it is not difficult to 

 obtain them. Until the year 1200, but one meal a 

 day was eaten during Lent. The close of Lent is 

 celebrated in Catholic countries with great rejoicings. 

 In Rome, the pizzicaruoli, or shops in which hams, 

 sausages, eggs, &c., are sold, are illuminated anrt 

 ornamented, in the most picturesque manner, the 

 night before, in order to attract buyers. The statue 

 of a saint, made of butter, is often seen. Heaps of 

 eggs are multiplied endlessly by reflecting mirrors, 

 and the whole scene is quite brilliant and attractive. 

 Milk is allowed during Lent. The English church 

 has retained Lent, and many other fasts, but gives no 

 directions respecting abstinence from food. See 

 Carnival.* 



LENTIL ; a species of ervum. The common 

 lentil comes from France and the Valais. The thin 

 annual root brings forth weak, creeping, hairy, angular 

 stalks, from one to two feet long, divided, from near 

 the bottom, into several branches, and clinging for 

 support to other plants ; the pinnate leaves stand 

 alternately ; from the axils of the leaves proceed fine 

 stalks, which each have two or three whitish flowers, 

 hanging down. The pods do not contain more than 

 two sound seeds, flat upon both sides. Lentils are 



* Though Lent is established to subdue our animal appe- 

 tites, and to induce us to live more spiritually, the follow, 

 ing remark is found in the Catholic work quoted above : 

 " If the rich would add almx to the fa.it as the church pre- 

 scribes, the poor would live better, and more comfortably, 

 during Lent, than in any other season of the year, and 

 would bless Ond for this salutary institution." 'p. 554, vol. 

 i., Die. de Thfelosic, Tuuluuse, 1817.) 



