LIB 



LIC 



rank or property, lest his ignorance of 

 the points whereon they are founded, 

 should hurry him into faction and licen- 

 tiousness on the one hand, or a pusillani- 

 mous indifference, and criminal submis- 

 sion, on the other. And all these rights 

 and liberties it is our birthright to enjoy 

 entire, unless where the laws of our 

 country have laid them under neces- 

 sary restraints. So that this review of 

 our situation may fully justify the obser- 

 vation of a learned French author (of 

 former times), who has professed that the 

 English is the only nation in the world 

 where political or civil liberty is the direct 

 end of its constitution. 



LIBRA, the balance, in astronomy, one 

 of the twelve signs of the zodiac, the 

 sixth in order ; so called, because when 

 the sun enters it, the days and nights are 

 equal, as if weighed in a balance. See 



A STRONG 51 T. 



LIBRA, in Roman antiquity, a pound 

 weight ; also a coin, equal in value to 

 twenty denarii. 



LIBRARY, an edifice or apartment des- 

 tined for holding a considerable number 

 of books placed regularly on shelves ; or, 

 the books themselves lodged in it. 



The first who erected a library at 

 Athens was the tyrant Pisistratus, which 

 was transported by Xerxes into Persia, 

 and afterwards brought back by Seleucus 

 Nicanor to Athens. Plutarch says, that 

 under Eumenes there was a library at 

 Pergamus that contained 200,000 books. 

 That of Ptolemy Philadelphus, according 

 to A. Gellius, contained 700,000, which 

 were all burnt by Caesar's soldiers. Con- 

 stantine and his successors erected a mag- 

 nificent one at Constantinople, which in 

 the eighth century contained 300,000 

 volumes, and among the rest one in which 

 the Iliad and Odyssey were written in 

 letters of gold, on the guts of a serpent ; 

 but this library was burnt by order of 

 Leo Isaums. The most celebrated libra- 

 ries of ancient Rome were the Ulpian and 

 the Palatine, and in modern Rome, that 

 of the Vatican ; the foundation of the 

 Vatican library was laid by Pope Nicholas, 

 in the year 1450 ; it was afterwards de- 

 stroyed in the sacking of Rome, by the 

 constable of Bourbon, and restored by 

 .Pope Sixtus V. and has been considera- 

 bly enriched with the ruins of that of 

 Heidelberg, plundered by Count Tilly in 

 1682. One of the most complete libraries 

 in Europe, is that erected by Cosmo de 

 Medicis ; though it is now exceeded by 

 that of the French King-, which was be- 

 gun by Francis I. augmented by Cardinal 

 Richelieu, and completed by M, Colbert, 



The Emperor's library at Vienna, accord- 

 ing to Lambecius, consists of 80,000 

 volumes, and 15,940 curious medals The 

 Bodleian library at Oxford exceeds that 

 of any university in Europe, and even 

 those of any of the sovereigns of Europe, 

 except those of the Emperors of France 

 and Germany, which are each of them 

 older by a hundred years. It Avas first 

 opened in 1602, and has since been in- 

 creased by a great number of benefactors: 

 indeed the Medicean library, that of Bes- 

 sarion at Venice, and those just men- 

 tioned, exceed it in Greek manuscripts, 

 but it outdoes them all in oriental manu- 

 scripts ; and as to printed books, the Am- 

 brosian at Milan, and that of Wolfenbut- 

 tle, are two of the most famous, and yet 

 both are inferior to the Bodleian. The 

 Cotton library consists wholly of manu- 

 scripts, particularly of such as relate to 

 the history and antiquities of England ; 

 which, as they are now bound, make 

 about 1000 volumes. 



In Edinburgh there is a good library 

 belonging to the university, well fur- 

 nished with books, which are kept in 

 good order, and cloistered up with wire 

 doors, that none but the keeper can open; 

 a method much more commodious than 

 the multitude of chains used in other li- 

 braries. There is also a noble library of 

 books and manuscripts belonging to the 

 gentlemen of the law. 



LTBRATION, in astronomy, an appa- 

 rent irregularity of the moon's motion, 

 whereby she seems to librate about her 

 axis, sometimes from the east to the west, 

 and now and then from the west to the 

 east ; so that the parts in the western 

 limb or margin of the moon sometimes 

 recede from the centre of the disc, and 

 sometimes move towards it, by which 

 means they become alternately visible 

 and invisible to the inhabitants of the 

 earth. See Moov. 



LIBRATION of the earth, is sometimes 

 used to denote the parallelism of the 

 earth's axis, in every part of its orbit round 

 the sun. 



LICHEN, in botany, a genus of the 

 Cryptogarnia Algae class and order. Na- 

 tural order of Alg.-e. Generic character: 

 male flowers; vesicles conglomerated, 

 extremely small, crowded or scattered 

 on the disc, margin, or tips of the'tronds: 

 female flowers on the same, or on a dis- 

 tinct plant; receptacle roundish, flattish, 

 convex, concave, subrevolute affixed to 

 the margin, often differing from the 

 frond in colour, within containing- the 

 seeds disposed in rows. This is a very 

 numerous genus ; many of the species 



