LUC 
LUC 
fouth-weft, where there are at lead twenty fathoms of tya- 
ter. On the weft fide there is no water : it abounds with 
goats, fea and land fowl, tortoifes, Sec. but whether it 
hath any inhabitants is not certainly known. 
LU'CIA (St.) a town of Sicily, in the valley of De¬ 
mons ; feven miles north of Medina.—Alfo, a town of 
the iftand of Corflca ; fix miles north-eaft of Corte.—Alfo, 
a town of South America, in the government of Buenos 
Ayres, on the eaft fide of the river Plata ; 14.0 miles north 
of Santa Fe—Alfo a town of Brafil, in the government of 
Goyas, on the river Tocantins. Lat. 12. 20. S.—Alfo, a 
town of South America, in the government of Buenos 
Ayres, on the Parana 5 no miles fouth of Corientes.— 
Alfo a town of Peru, in the government of Arequipa ; 
fifty miles fouth-eaft of Arequipa.—Alfo, a town of South 
America, in the audience of Quito, on the Daule ; thirty- 
five miles north-north-weft of Guayaquil.—Alfo, a town 
of Italy, in the Trevifan ; twenty miles eaft-fouth-eaft of 
Trevigio.—Alfo, a river of Africa, which runs into the 
Indian Sea in lat. 28. S.—Alfo a river of America, in Eaft 
Florida, which runs fouth-eaft along the eaft fide of the 
peninfula, and communicates inland with the Indian fi¬ 
ver.—A bay on the eaft coaft of, the ifland of Borneo. 
Lat. 4.16. N. Ion. 117.18. E. 
LU'CIAN, a diltinguifhed Greek writer, was a native 
of Samofata, the capital of Comagene, on the banks of the 
Euphrates. He was born in the reign of Trajan, of mean 
parentage ; and in his youth was placed with an uncle to 
learn the art of ftatuary. Having contracted a difgulf 
for this employment by the bad luccefs of his firft at¬ 
tempts, he withdrew from his mailer, and went to An¬ 
tioch, where he engaged in literary ftudies; .and. after¬ 
wards improved himfelf fo much by travelling, that no 
man now-a-days can diftinguilh him' from a native Athe¬ 
nian. He taught rhetoric in Gaul and other places. In 
Antioch he was a pleader at the bar. In this profefiion 
he took a diflike to noife and lying ; and fat down to 
write dialogues on the folly of mankind. He was about 
forty years of age when he began to imagine himfelf vvifer 
than the philolophers of his time, with whofe refpeClive 
lives and opinions he was well enough acquainted to have 
abundant matter for ridicule. He makes continual al- 
lufions to Homer, perhaps thinking himfelf, like Perfius, 
a wifer man than the writer of an Iliad : “ Hoc ridere 
meum, tarn nil, nulla tibi vendo Iliade.” In his old age 
he was appointed to lome place of confequence under the 
emperor in Egypt, though it is not eafy to determine ex¬ 
actly what. He married when fomewhat advanced in 
a^e ; and had a fon, who was a favourite with Julian the 
Apoflate : a letter of that emperor to him is Hill extant: 
the fame talents that recommended the father to Aure¬ 
lius, appear to have been poffeffed in fome degree by the 
fon. It is mod probable that Lucian died about the year' 
180, at the age of ninety ; and it is more likely, that he 
died of the gout than that he was devoured by dogs en¬ 
raged to find an apoftate. The llory of his embracing 
and afterwards renouncing the Chriftian religion, with 
that dreadful confequence, feems to have been the inven¬ 
tion of lome bigot abfurd enough to dream of an alliance 
between truth and falfehood. Zuingerus lias difpofed of 
Lucian’s body and foul to his heart’s content: “ Quare 
et rabici iftius pcenas lufficientes in prtefenti vita dedit, 
et in futurum haeres reterni ignis unacura Safana erit.” 
The works of Lucian, of which a large number have 
reached our times, confiftof a variety of pieces, narrative, 
rhetorical, critical, and fatirical, partly in the hiftorical 
arid dialeCfical form, but principally in that of dialogue. 
Of thefe, the molt popular, and thofe which have damped 
his character as a writer, are fuch as are diftinguifiied by 
a vein of humour employed in ridiculing the heathen my¬ 
thology, or the leCts of philofophers which then divided 
the (chocls of Greece. He is accounted the principal 
mailer of witty raillery among the ancients; and ranks 
with Swift and Voltaire among the moderns, though his 
fatire is lefs delicate and ingenious than theirs. Some of 
743 
his keeneft ftrokes againft falfe religion and philofophy 
are put into the mouth of the Cynics, Diogenes and Me- 
nippus. He himfelf feems to have adopted no particular 
fyflem, but to have been the general foe of impofture and fu* 
perdition in all. As the Epicurean feCt concurred with him 
in this refpeft, he treats it with more favour than the reft. 
He likewife frequently affumes the ftrong fenfe and acute- 
nefs of the Socratics. The Chriftian religion comes in 
for a lhare of his ridicule ; but hehppears to have been ac¬ 
quainted with it only in the garb of myftery and fanati- 
cifm. The ftyle of Lucian being more pure tlian that of 
his contemporaries, two or three of the mod celebrated 
fathers are reported to have improved themfelves in com- 
polition by ftudying his works, and to have turned the ar¬ 
tillery of his wit againft his own party. Thofe who are con- 
verfant with the fathers may pofiibly know where this wit.is 
written. Like his brother fatirilts, he is little reftrided by 
truth and moderation in his farcafms, and readily admits 
calumnious reports relative to eminent characters. Some 
of his pieces offend againft decency ; but in general he is 
a friend to morality. He is the only ancient writer who 
lias dared to doubt of the mufical abilities of fwans. He 
tells us, with his ufual pleafantry, that he tried to afeer- 
tain the fact by making a voyage on the coafts of Italy; 
and that, being arrived at the mouth of the Po, he and 
bis friends had the curiofity to fail lip the river, in order 
to aik the watermen and inhabitants concerning the tra¬ 
gical fate-of Phaeton; and to examine the poplars, de- 
fcendants of his filters, whom they expeCted to (lied am¬ 
ber inltead of tears '; as well as to fee the fwans reprefent 
the friends of this unfortunate prince, and hear them ling 
lamentations and forrovvful hymns, night and day, to his 
praife, as they ufed to do, in the character of muficians 
and favourites of Apollo, before their change. However, 
thefe good people, who never had beard of any fuch me- 
tamorphofes, freely confeffed, that they had indeed fome- 
times feen fwans in the marines near the river, and had 
heard them croak and fcream in fuch a difagreeable man¬ 
ner, that crows and jays would be firens, compared with 
them ; but that they had never even dreamed of fwans 
finging a lingle note that was pleafing, or fit to be heard. 
The heft editions of Lucian’s works entire are thofe of 
Bourdelot, Paris, folio, 1615 ; of Grmvius, Amll, 2 vols. 
8vo. 1687 ; of Reitzius, Am ft. 4 vols. 4to. 1743, and the 
Bipontir.e, 10 vols. 8vo. 1789-93. Editions of his felefl 
dialogues, and of other detached pieces, are extremely nu¬ 
merous, and much ufed in fchools. Lucian has been 
tranllated into French by d’Ablancourt and others. There 
is an Eriglilh tranflation which bears the name of Dryden , 
perhaps from a fenfe of jultice to l’ome bookfeller, who 
had paid a Aim of money, that it might be called fo. The 
tranflation by Mr. Francis Hickes appears, by the lan¬ 
guage, to have been made about the beginning of the 
17th century. At lead it was before that of Jafper Mayne, 
done in 1638, and publifhed in 1664. Their tranflations 
taken together extend to only a fmall part of Lucian. 
Spence, according to lord Dorfet, “ was fo cunning a 
tranflator, that a man mull read the original to under, 
ftand the verfion,” Thefe are all the Englilh tranflations 
of Lucian that we have feen previous to that of Mr. John 
Carr, who at firft publifhed a feleftion from the Dialogues 
in a fingle volume : this coming to a fecond edition in 
the year 1774, he was induced to publifh a fecond vo¬ 
lume in 1779, when he again took leave of his readers; a 
third volume, however, appeared in 1786; and a fourth 
and fifth, completing the tranflation, in 1798. VoJJii llijl . 
Gricc. Carr's Preface. 
LU'CIAN, an eminent Chriftian martyr in the fourth 
century, according to the molt unexceptionable autho¬ 
rities, was a native of Antioch, of which place he became 
prelbyter. From the feftimbnies of St. Jerome, Eufebius, 
and Sozomen, it appears that he was a very learned and 
pious man, of an unblemilhed and excellent character in 
all refpefts, of great eloquence, and particularly well 
Skilled in the knowledge of the Scriptures. He publifhed 
2 an 
