LISLE. 



He was received a member of the Jefuits' college at Pont- Lisle, Joseph Nicholas de, young-er brother of the 

 a-MoufTon, took his degrees in law, and was admitted an preceding, was born at Paris in i6S8. Havi.ig received a 

 advocate. Conceiving, in a very (hort time, a great diflike good education in ih.' elements of learning, he attended Ice. 

 to the la«-, he devoted himfelf to the lludy of iiiftory and tures in the Mazarine college. The total eclipfe of the fiia 

 geography. For the fake of the fuperior advantages to be which occurred in March 1706, led him to purfiie withavi- 

 obtained in the metropolis, he removed to Paris, and applied dity mathtnialical learning, particularly in its application to 

 himfelf to the inftruftions of the mod diftinguilhed pro- allronomy, and he foon exhibited a furprifing genius for ir- 

 felTors. Having obtained a large fund of knowledge on 

 the fubjec\.s referred to, he commenced private ledurcr, and 

 acquired fuch a high reputation in his profeffion, that he 

 could boart of having been mailer to the principal nobility 

 at the French court. M. de Lide died at Paris in 1720, 

 in the feventy-fixth year of his age. He was author of 

 " An Hill»,rical Account of the Kiugdoni of Siam ;" "A 

 Genealogical and Hilloncal Atlas, on engraved Plates;" 

 " .^»n Abridgment of Univerfal Hillory, from the Creation 

 of the World to 1714," in 7 vols. izmo. ; and feveral other 



vention, combination, and calculation. In 1709, he obtained 

 leave to occupy the cupola of tiie Luxembourg palace for 

 an obfervatoiy ; he was now enabled to make a wooden 

 quadrant, which he divided with great tare, and which he 

 found to anfwer his purpofe in his early obfervations. Short- 

 ly after this, his father's numerous family made it neceflkry 

 for him to endeavour to procure for hinifelf tl^e means of 

 fupport ; and in doir;g this he found himfelf obliged to ren- 

 der his allronomical (Icill fubfervicnt to the reveries of judi- 

 cial allrology, tor which he was not only remunerated bv 



works, one of which was " An Introduction to Geographv, pecuniary prefents from the regent, marfiial de Noailies, and 



with a Treatife on the Sphere ;" pubhfhed in 1740, in the other great men, but had the grant of a penfion of 60a 



name of his eldell fon. Moreri. livres. This was in the year 17I5, when he was deeply en- 



Li.sLE, William de, a learned French geographer, fon gaged in calcuhting the tables of the moon according to the 



of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1675. He difco- theory of fir Ifaac Newton. He had, previoufly to ihii, 



vered at a very early age a genius for geographical lludies, been eledled a member of the Academy of Sciences, which 



and defigned maps before he was nine')'ear5 of age. In the gave new energy to his exertions, and the memoirs of that 



ye?r 1696 he pubhihed a map of the world, maps of the 



four quarters, as they are called, viz. Europe, Afia, Afi'ica, 



and Am.erica, a map of Italy, one of Ancient Africa, ar.d 



two globes, a celedial and terrcllrial or.e. Thefe perform- 

 ances were not only well received, but etUiblifhed the author's 



fame. In 1702 he was elefted a member of the Academy 



of Sciences, and in 171S he was appointed firll geographer, 



with a penfion. He was about the lame time appointed 



geographical tutor to the young king, Lewis XV., for 



whofe ufe he drew up feveral works, among wliich was a 



general map of the world, and another of the retreat of ihe 



ten thoufand. He alfo gave the world " A Treatife on the 



Courfe of all the known Rivers." The reputation of M. de 



Lide was now fo great, tliat all authors of refpeilability 



body were in a (liort time enriched with his valuable reflections 

 and dilTertations. He made many obfervations on the foots 

 in thi fu!T, and was led to form from them a theory to de. 

 terniine the fun's rotation on his axis. In 1720 he delivered 

 a propolal to the Academy for afcertaining in France the 

 figure ot the earth, and fome years afterwards his defigns 

 relative to that object were carried into execution. la 

 17:4. M. de Lille paid a vifit to England, obtained the no- 

 tice and triendlhip of Newton and Haiiey, and was admitted 

 a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1726, by the invita- 

 tion of Catharine, emprefs of Ruffia, he went to Peterf- 

 burg, to fill the pod of alhonom.er royal in the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences. In this fituation he occupied the 

 houfe of the obfervatory built by Peter the Great, in 



■who wrote on hidory or fubjefts connecfted witli it, were which he fpent nearly twenty-one years, in inceffant labours 



dejlrous of embellifl'.ing them with his maps ; and many, fo- for the improvement of ailronomy and geography. The 



vereign princes endeavoured to tempt him to enter into their firll feries of his obfervations were employed in afcertaininff 



fervice. The emperor, Peter the Great, paid him a vilit the longitude end latitude of Peterfburg, and the refractions 



with the view of obtaining from him a knowledge of the in that northern region. After this he devoted feveral years 



extent and fituation of his own dominions. He died in the to an alTiduous obfervaticn of the meridional height of all the 



fifty-tirft year of his age, while he was engaged in many planets, and of the fixed liars of the three firft magnitudes, 



ufetul and important works. Moreri. and pubhihed memoirs illuflrative of the hiftory of allrono- 



LlsLE, Lewis DE, brother of the preceding, celebrated my, in two vols. 4to. In the year i 740, a tranfit of Mercury- 



for his knowledge in allronomy, rendered foir.e important was expefted, which, as it would not be vifible m Europe, 



fervice to the interelts of fcience, by the hazardous journies he was determined to travel into Afia to obferve. His firll 



and voyspes which he undertook to promote them. In the 

 year 1726 he went to Ruffia with his brother Jofeph, who 

 had been appointed allronomer to the Academy of Sciences 

 at Peterlburg. Lewis, at this time, made e.'vcurfions be- 

 yond the utmoll boundaries of the immenfe Ruffian empire. 

 He took ieveral journies to the coails of the Icy fea, to 



obfervations in the climate of Siberia, were on the iiitenfe- 

 nefs of the cold, which was greater than had ever been 

 pointed out by a thermometer, or tlian it was conceived pof- 

 fible for human nature to futlain. He publilhed a memoir 

 on this fubjeft in the volume of the TranfaCtions of the 

 French Academy for 1749. When the time for obferving 



Lapland, and the government of Archangel, to determine the tranfit arrived, the cloudinefs of the weather totallv 



the fituation of the pnncipal places by allronomical obferva- frullrated the defign of his journey. His time and labour 



tions. He afterwards traverfed a great part of Siberia, were not however wholly loll, as he employed hinifclf ia 



with M. MuUer and M. Gmelin, profeffors of the academy making geographical and phyhcal obfervations, and 111 draw- 



at Peterlburg. In 1 741 he proceeded alone to Kamtfchatka, ing up a delcription of the couutrv, wliich defcnutioir is ic- 



and went from thence to Cape Beering, to examine the un- ferted in the eighteenth volume of tjuerlou's Hidory of 



known northern coalts of America, and the feas between Travels, &c. Another fruit of his expedition inta'thj 



them and the --Vtlantic continent. He died in the iame year. Ruffian dominions, was an atlas ot" the country, fiid puh- 



On account of his great merit he obtained a feat in the Aca- lilhed in the Ruffian language, and afterwards in the, LjIiV. 



demy of Sciences, and was author of fome papers in the Connected with his meteorological obfervations, he condriiit- 



•' Memoirs" of that learned body, and of the Academy of ed a thermometer, which »vas differently graduated from thofe 



Sciences at Peterlburg. Moreri. then in ufe : the de2rces began at the heat of boiling watsr, 



Vol, XXL U c ^j 



