454 



LEVIATHAN LEXINGTON'. 



tily while they were suffering the consequences of 

 circumcision, to which they had submitted, and mur- 

 dered all (he males. Jacob reproaches them with 

 this act of cruelty, on his death-bed, and threatens 

 them with tin- diversion of their descendants. Moses 

 and Aaron were of this tribe. The Levites were set 

 apart, by Mo^es for the service of religion, thus 

 forming a hereditary caste of priests, or religious 

 ministers, who received territories scattered about in 

 the lands of the other tribes. The third book of 

 Moses is called Leviticus, as it relates principally to 

 the organization of the ministry. The Mosaic law is 

 sometimes also called the Levitical law. ' See Moses. 



LEV1AT.HAN (Hebrew) is compounded of two 

 words, meaning a great fish, and fastened; hence it 

 probably means a huge fish covered with close 

 scales. The Septuagint renders it Sj*av (a dragon), 

 and *r (a whale). From the description given of it 

 in the book of Job (xli.), it is usually considered to 

 mean the crocodile, though some have supposed it to be 

 the whale. See Harris's Natural History of the Bible. 



LEVITES. See Levi. 



LEVITICUS. See Levi. 



LEWIS. Harris and Lewi* is the name bestowed 

 on one of the largest and most northerly of the 

 Hebrides, the southern part of which is called Harris, 

 and the northern Lewis. Lewis extends south-west 

 and north-east eighty-two miles, and it is from ten to 

 twenty-three miles in breadth, containing an area of 

 902 square miles, or 451,000 Scots acres. It lies 

 between 5 40' and 7 10' W. Ion., and 57 54' and 

 58" 28' N. lat. Lewis belongs to the county of Ross; 

 Harris to Inverness-shire. Lewis is divided into four 

 parishes: Barvas, Lochs, Stornaway, and Uig. 

 Besides some hamlets, the#e is only one town, viz : 

 Stornaway, which lies on the east side of the island, 

 at the head of a bay. The surface of the country is 

 less rugged tlian that of Harris ; the east side of the 

 district is principally pasture land, and the west side 

 is arable. On the coasts are numerous bays and 

 inlets, where great quantities of shellfish are found ; 

 and the fisheries of herrings and cod are prosecuted 

 with success. The rivers abound with trout, and in 

 the season with salmon. The land animals are horses, 

 black-cattle, deer, sheep, goats, and hogs, all which 

 are of small size. Population of Lewis in 1841, 

 21,466, inclusive of 4,429, being the entire popula- 

 tion of what is denominated Harris. 



LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY, an English writer, 

 whose attempts, both in the departments of the drama 

 and of romance, obtained at one period, a very con- 

 siderable share of popularity, though but too fre- 

 quently disfigured by bad taste, and degraded by 

 licentiousness, was the son of a gentleman of good 

 property, who was under-secretary at war. The 

 subject of this article was born in the metropolis, in 

 1773, and educated at Westminster ; on quitting 

 which he travelled for improvement, especially into 

 Germany, the literature of which country produced a 

 strong impression upon him, and gave that peculiar 

 turn to his compositions, which placed him in the 

 foremost rank among the delineators of the marvel- 

 lous and terrific, ana has since loaded the shelves of 

 circulating libraries with hosts of imitators, most of 

 whom exhibit all the extravagances without the 

 genius of their model. Of his writings, the first and 

 most celebrated was the Monk, a romance, in three 

 vols., 12mo, which, although much decried for its 

 licentiousness, ran through a great number of edi- 

 tions ; Feudal Tyrants, ditto, 4 vols. ; Romantic 

 Tales, 4 vols. ; Tales of Wonder, in verse, 1 vol., 

 STO ; Tales of Terror, 1 vol., 8vo ; the Castle 

 Spectre, a romantic drama ; Adelmorn the Outlaw, 

 ditto; Venoni, a tragedy; a volume of miscellaneous 

 poetry, and the Bravo of Venice (a translation from 



the German), 1 vol., 8vo. Mr Lewis had a seat in 

 parliament, but seldom took part in the business of 

 the house. His death took place in 1818, at sea, 

 while on his voyage home from a visit to his West 

 linliaii jH)ssessions. 



LEWIS, MKRI WETHER, a celebrated explorer, was 

 born near the town of Charlottesville, in Virginia, 

 August 18, 1774. His father, a man of independent 

 fortune, died when he was yet a child. He very 

 early gave proofs of that bold and enterprising dis- 

 position for which he was subsequently so distin- 

 guished. At the age of eighteen, he relinquished 

 academic studies, and engaged in the pursuits of a 

 farmer, with which he continued to occupy himself 

 until he was twenty. General Washington having 

 called out a body of militia, in consequence of the 

 disturbances in the western parts of the country, 

 produced by discontent at the excise taxes, young 

 Lewis enrolled himself in it as a volunteer, and from 

 that situation Was removed to the regular service. 

 In 1803, president Jefferson proposed to congress to 

 send some competent person on an exploring expe- 

 dition to the western part of the continent of North 

 America, who might ascend the Missouri, cross the 

 Stony mountains, and descend the nearest river to 

 the Pacific. Congress having approved the proposi- 

 tion, and voted a sum of money for carrying it into 

 execution, captain Lewis, who had then been nearly 

 two years with Mr Jefferson as his private secretary, 

 was chosen for that purpose. The following testi- 

 mony of Mr Jefferson gives an idea of his fitness for 

 the task : ' ' Of courage undaunted ; possessing a 

 firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing 

 but impossibilities could divert from its direction ; 

 careful as a father of those committed to his charge, 

 yet steady in the maintenance of order and disci- 

 pline; intimate with the Indian character, customs, 

 and principles ; habituated to the hunting life ; 

 guarded, by exact observation of the vegetables and 

 animals of his own country, against losing time in 

 the description of objects already possessed; honest, 

 disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding, and a 

 fidelity to truth so scrupulous, that whatever he 

 should report would be as certain as if seen by our- 

 selves : with all these qualifications, as if selected 

 and implanted by nature, in one body, for this ex- 

 press purpose, I could have no hesitation in confid- 

 ing the enterprise to him." That there might be 

 some person with him to assume the conduct of the 

 expedition in case of accident to himself, William 

 Clarke was appointed, at Lewis's request, to accom- 

 pany him, and received a commission of captain. 

 (For the particulnrs of this expedition, see the 

 account which has been published of it Expedition, 

 &c. Philadelphia, 1814, 2 vols.). It was highly 

 successful, and occupied three years, the party 

 engaged in it having set out in the summer of 1803, 

 and returned in the autumn of 1806. Lewis was 

 soon afterwards made governor of the territory of 

 Louisiana, and Clarke a general of its militia, and 

 agent of the United States for Indian affaire. On 

 the new governor's arrival at St Louis, the seat of 

 administration, he found the country torn by dissen- 

 sions ; but his moderation, impartiality, and firmness 

 soon brought matters into a regular train. He was sub- 

 ject to constitutional hypochondria, and, while under 

 the influence of a severe attack of this disorder, put an 

 end to his life, in 1809, at the age of thirty-six. 



LEWIS'S RIVER; a river of North America, 

 which rises in the Rocky mountains, and runs north- 

 west into the Columbia, 413 miles from its mouth ; 

 length, about 900 miles. 



LEXINGTON ; one of the principal towns of 

 Kentucky, capital of Fayette county, on a branch of 

 the Elkhorn, 22 miles S. E. of Frankfort, 85 S. of 



