LEUC^THIOPS LEUTHEN. 



451 



was famous for the festival annually celebrated there, 

 a.ul the (so called) Leucailian leap. At every festival, 

 a criminal was thrown from the rock into the sea, as 

 a sin-offering, loaded, as it were, with all the sins of 

 tile people. He wore a dress of feathers, and even 

 living birds were fastened to him, so that he generally 

 fell gently, without much injury, into the deep, 

 whence he was taken out. but was obliged to leave 

 i he country for ever. No less remarkable was the 

 leap, which many performed of their own accord, 

 from this rock, to free themselves from the tortures 

 of unhappy love. It is said that some tried it more 

 than once; but the unhappy lovers generally met 

 with death in the waves. Among the latter are 

 mentioned two females Artemisia, queen of Caria, 

 and Sappho. See Sappho. 



LEUCjETH I OPS. See Albino. 



LEUCHTENBERG ; a lordship (before 1806 a 

 landgraviate, with a princely title, and a seat and 

 vote in the diet), situated in the ancient Nordgau, 

 on the river Nab, in the Upper Palatinate, in the 

 Bavarian circle of Regen. It comprises eighty-four 

 square miles, with 5300 inhabitants. Pfreimbt is the 

 chief place. The late king of Bavaria conferred the 

 lordship, in 1817, on his son-in-law Eugene, ex-vice- 

 roy of Italy, with the principality of Eichstadt, held 

 immediately of the crown. Eugene took the title of 

 duke of Leuchtenberg, and made over to the crown 

 of Bavaria the 5,000,000 of francs, which the king 

 of the Two Sicilies was bound to pay him for his 

 Neapolitan dotations. His dotations in the Lom- 

 bardo- Venetian kingdom were given up to Austria, 

 for 7,000,000, and he retained possession of those in 

 the Mark of Ancona, the income of which is estimated 

 at 850,000 francs annually. The income of the 

 duke (exclusive of the interests of his large capital) 

 amounts to 1,600,000 francs. The present duke 

 Augustus was born December 9, 1810. His sister 

 Josephine, born March 14, 1807, is crown-princess 

 of Sweden ; Amelia, born July 31, 1812, ex-empress 

 of the Brazils. There are several other children. 



LEUCIPPUS; the founder of the atomic school in 

 Greek philosophy, and teacher of Democritus. By 

 some he is said to have l>een a native of Abdera; by 

 others, of Elea; and by others, of the island Melos. 

 He lived 500 years B. C. His instructer was Zeno 

 the Eleatic. To settle a contest between reason and 

 sensible experience, which had been mainly excited 

 by the Eleatic school, he invented his system, which 

 he opposed to that of the Eleatics. The more ancient 

 Eleatics denied the reality of motion, vacuity of space, 

 and plurality of matter, reducing all that exists to a 

 single, eternal, and immutable substance. Leucippus, 

 on the contrary, assumed the infinity of space. In 

 this space, there are, according to his view, an infinite 

 quantity of particles of matter, too minute to be per- 

 ceptible to the senses. In themselves, they are indi- 

 visible (thence the name atoms); for, if an infinite 

 divisibility were ascribed to them, they would at last 

 disappear into nothing. Now, these atoms move 

 from eternity in infinite space, and by their union 

 and separation, form the origin and end of things. 

 Since unity can never become plurality, nor plurality 

 become unity, the atoms cannot, by their connexion, 

 produce a true unity, but mere aggregations. In 

 substance, all the atoms are similar, but of an infinite 

 variety of shapes, by which is explained the variety 

 of bodies formed by them. Atoms are moreover 

 distinguished by their local situation, and the order 

 in which they are compounded. Situation and order 

 are the fundamental properties of the atoms ; from 

 their union and separation arise properties of the 

 second order (quatifates sccuntlarice) , such as hard- 

 ness, softness, colour, sound, smell, &c. As far as 

 can be deduced from the imperfect notices which we 



have, Leucippus explained the origin of the world 

 by the motion of atoms, in the following manner : 

 From the infinity of atoms, some broke loose, and, 

 becoming confused, produced a rotatory motion by 

 means of which, similar particles were associated with 

 similar particles, while the dissimilar were repelled. 

 From the necessary inequality of the velocity of the 

 bodies, the smaller were driven to the outside, and 

 formed, as it were, an envelop around a kernel. 

 The grosser bodies of this envelop sank downwards, 

 and, by their mutual collisions, attenuated the enve- 

 lop. The bodies that sank downwards compose the 

 earth ; the envelop itself was finally inflamed, and 

 gave rise to the stars. To fire he ascribed round 

 atoms. The atoms composing the other elements 

 water, air and earth were distinguished merely by 

 magnitude. Fire, as the most subtile, the lightest 

 and most fluid element, he made the soul of the world, 

 the principle of life, sensation and thought. These 

 last modifications, however, according to Leucippus, 

 were not always founded in the nature of atoms, but 

 merely in the mode of their aggregation. The intel- 

 lectual substance (consisting of particles of fire) is 

 diffused through the whole body. Men and animals 

 inhale it with the atmosphere, and hence life ceases 

 with the end of respiration. There is nothing said 

 in his system respecting the soul of the universe, a 

 providence, or Deity. 



LEUCITE, or AMPHIGENE, is a mineral which 

 occurs in little masses, having the appearance of 

 crystals roiuided by attrition ; also in crystals 

 whose form is that of the trapezohedron, apparently 

 with cleavages parallel to the rhombic dodecahe- 

 dron and cube, the latter of which, being the most 

 simple of the two, has been adopted as the form 

 of the primary crystal. Colour grayish white ; 

 translucent; lustre vitreous ; fracture conchoidal : 

 specific gravity 2'37. Before the blow-pipe alone, 

 it is infusible ; with borax, it fuses into a transparent 

 glass. It consists of 53-75 silex, 24'62 of alumine, 

 and 21.35 of potash. It is found only in volcanic and 

 trap rocks. The lavas of Vesuvius and basalts of 

 Italy abound with it. It is especially abundant 

 between Rome and Frescati. 



LEUCO ; two syllables found in many scientific 

 terms or geographical names, derived from the Greek 

 Xjuxo;, white. 



LEUCOTHEA. See Ino. 



LEUCTRA ; a village in Boeotia (at present, 

 Livadia), famous for the great battle in the year 371 

 B. C., which the Theban Epaminondas won over the 

 Spartan king Cleombrotus, thus putting an end to 

 the great influence which Sparta had exerted fur 

 several centuries over all Greece. 



LEUSDEN, JOHN ; a celebrated biblical critic and 

 theologian, born in 1624, at Utrecht, where he after- 

 wards obtained the professorship of Hebrew, with the 

 reputation of being one of the most erudite scholars 

 and able divines of the age. He published a new 

 edition of the books of the Old Testament, in the 

 original Hebrew (in 2 vols., 8vo), and of those of the 

 New, in Greek' and Latin (one thick I2mo) ; a He- 

 brew and Latin Lexicon ; an edition of Poole's 

 Synopsis (5 vols., folio) ; 1'crsio Scplit'aginta Intcr- 

 prcium ; Cluvis Greeca Kvet Teslumenti ; Oiiomasti- 

 con Sacrum ; Philologns Hcbrams ct Philiitogns //<?- 

 brocomi.iiiis ; Claris Hcbruicu ct J'/tilologica I'd. 

 Test.; a Hebrew Psalter, and Commentaries on il.c 

 Books of the Prophets Joel, Hosea, and Jonah. 

 Leusden died in his native city, about the close of 

 the seventeenth century. 



LEUTHEN ; a village in Lower Saxony, west <if 

 Breslau, famous on account of a battle gained l.< 

 by Frederic the Great, Decembers, 1 757, over pniite 

 Charles of Lorraine. See Set-en Years' /I'ar. 

 2 F 2 



