L Y D 
V 
SS 4 
ment which Mr. Mede and Mr. Lydiat obtained, they 
have obferved, that the negleft of fo much merit proved 
the Englilh to be unworthy of having fuch eminent fcho- 
Jars among them. Mr. Lydiat was the author of a great 
number of books, befides that already referred to ; as, 
i. Be variis annorurn forms ; and a defence of the fame in 
reply to Clavius and Scaliger. 2. On the Origin of Foun¬ 
tains. 3. Several treatifes on Philofophy and Aftronoiny, 
&c. See. He alfo left behind him a number of rnanu- 
fcripts„many of which are enumerated by Anthony Wood 
in his Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. 
LYD'IUS, f Lydian Stone, or Touchstone 5 in 
mineralogy, a genus of filiceous earth—Confiding of flex, 
a fmall quantity of lime, magnefia, oxyd of iron and in¬ 
flammable matter ; hard, Jightifti, opake, cotnnaft, cine¬ 
reous, black or greenifli-black, flaty, of a common form, 
breaking into indeterminate fragments, detached or con- 
ftituting mountains ; not fufible per fe. There are two 
fpecies. 
1. Lydias flliceus, or fliiceous lydian done: fubopake, 
of a fplintery frafture, without internal luflre. Found 
in various parts of Europe, in blocks and amorphous 
maffes of various fizes, and very often in the beds of ri¬ 
vers ; colour blackilh-grey or greenifli, often interfered 
with veins of grey quartz or blood-red iron-done. This 
is a variety of primitive fchiftus, the ftrudlure of which 
is fo compact, that the fchiftofe character is often not dif- 
tindtly perceptible, except in great maffes ; its texture in 
particular parts is as clofe as flint; and hence the term 
filiceousfchiflus is applied to it. 
2. Lydius genuinus, genuine lydian-ftone, bafanite, or 
touchftone: of an even texture, fometimes approaching 
to the conchoidal, fhining a little internally. Found in 
various parts of Europe, detached or in maffes, and is 
commonly interfered by veins of quartz ; colour dark- 
' greyifh-black ; its powder black. Specific gravity 2’596. 
It is called bafanite from its occafional ufe in allaying the 
purity of gold and filver. The ufe of the touchjlone for 
the purpofe of afeertaining the degree of purity of gold 
and filver is fpoken of frequently in the writings of the 
ancients. Theophraflus gives an accurate defeription of 
its ufe ; and deferibes an apparatus very -analogous to the 
touching-needles of the prefent day ; by which, in em¬ 
ploying various artificial alloys as a ttandard of compan¬ 
ion, the purity of gold was readily afeertained by the co¬ 
lour of the ffreak imprefled on the ffone. But it is to be 
obferved, that both this name and Heraclius lapis were alfo 
applied by the ancients to the loadftone ; and hence has 
arifen no final! mifunderftanding of their works. Pliny 
lias obferved, that both the loadftone and touchftone 
were at times called Lydius and Heraclius lapis. The true 
lapis Lydius, or touchftone, was anciently found only in 
the river Tmolus ; but was afterwards found in many 
other places, and is now very common in many of the 
German rivers. The ancients give us very remarkable 
and circumftantial accounts of the ufes they made of it; 
and it is plain they were able to difeern the alloys of gold 
by means of it with very great exaftnefs. We at prefent 
ufe feveral different ftones under this name, and for the 
fame purpofe. In Italy, a green marble called verdello is 
molt frequently ufed; and with us, very frequently fmall 
pieces of bafalt. 
LYD'IUS, an epithet applied to the Tyber, becaufe it 
palfed near Etruria, whole inhabitants were originally a 
Lydian colony. Virgil. 
LYD'IUS (Balthazar), the fon of a German proteftant 
rninilter in the Palatinate, who took refuge from perfecu- 
tion in the United Provinces, and became profeffor of di¬ 
vinity in Franeker. We are not furnilhed with any other 
particulars concerning the life of the fubjeft of the pre¬ 
fent article, than that he began the exercile of the minif- 
terial functions at Dort, about the year 1603, and died in 
1629. Among other works, he was the author of fome 
pieces interefting to the ecclefialtical hiftorian, entitled 
«< Waldenfia, id eft, Confervatio verse Ecclefue tlemon- 
L Y- E 
ftrata ex Confeflionibus Taboritarum et Bohemiorum,” 
2 vols. 8vo. the firft of which was publilhed at Rotterdam 
in 1619, and the other at Dort in the following year; and 
“ Facula' accenfa Hiftorise Valdenfium.” He alfo pub- 
lifned a treatife relating to the firft vifits paid by the Eu¬ 
ropeans to the new world, entitled “ Novus Orbis, feu 
Navigationes primse in Americana.” 
He had a younger brother, named John Lydius, who 
was minifter at Oudewater in Holland, and published a 
work of Prateolus, entitled “ Concilia Ecclefise Chrif- 
tianae,” with his own critical remarks, 1610; an edition 
ofNicol. de Clemangis de Corrupto Ecclefite Statu,” 
with notes, and a gloffary, 1613 ; and “ The Lives of the 
Popes,” by Robert Barnes and John Bale, with a conti- 
miation to his own time by himfelf, in 1615. 
LYD'IUS (James), fon of Balthazar, and like him a 
minifter at Dort, was diftinguilhed for his acquaintance 
with criticifm and polite literature, as well as divinity. 
Befides feveral controverfial pieces againft the Catholics, 
and feveral poems in the Dutch language, he publiftied 
fome works abounding in learned and curious refearcb : 
fuch as, 1. Sermonum convivalium Libri duo, quibus va- 
riarum Gentium Mores et Ritus in Uxore expedianda, 
Sponfalibus contrahendis, Nuptiifqua faciendis et perfici- 
endis, enarrantur, 1643, 4to. 2. Agoniftica Sacra, 1657, 
i2mo. After his death, profeflor Van Till, of Dort, 
printed from his manuferipts, with notes by the editor, 
3. Syntagma facrum de Re militari; 1698, 4to. Gen. Biog. 
LYDOWI'ANY, a town of Sarnogitia i eight miles 
north-weft of Roiienne. 
LY'DUS, a fon of Atys and Callithea, king of Mteo- 
nia, which from him received the name of Lydia. His 
brother Tyrrhenus led a colony to Italy, and gave the 
name of Tyrrhenia to the fettlement he made on the coaft 
of the Mediterranean. See the article Lydia, p. 822. 
LYD'SING, a village in Kent, near Gravefend; here it 
was that 600 Norman young gentlemen, who came over with 
the young princes Alfred and Edward, the fons of king 
Ethelred, after the death of the Danifh kins', Canute, to 
take poffeflion of their father’s throne, were maflacred by 
Godwin earl of Kent, who fought thereby to fecure it to 
himfelf and his family. Here is a chapel of eal'e to Gil¬ 
lingham. 
LYE, f. [lige, Sax,] Water impregnated with the falts 
of afties. In hufoandry, the term is generally applied to 
fuch fluids as are employed for the purpofe of fteeping 
grain ; in which cafes the beft criterion of their liren<nh 
is that of the fwimming of an egg. 
LYE (Edward), a learned antiquary and great matter 
of the Gothic and Saxon tongues, was born in 1694, at 
Totnefs in Devonshire, where his father kept a fchool. 
His early education was chiefly domeltic ; but at the age 
of nineteen he was admitted at Hertford-college, Oxford, 
where he took a bachelor’s degree in 1716. He was or¬ 
dained prieli in 1719, and prefented to the living of 
Haughton-parva in Northamptonlhire. In this retreat he 
employed himfelf in a profound ftudy of the Anglo-Saxon 
language. Hi9 firft literary undertaking was to publifli 
an edition of the Etymologicum Anglicanum of Francis 
Junius, from the author’s manufeript in the Bodleian li¬ 
brary. This he completed in the feventh year from the 
commencement of his tafle, prefixing to the work an An¬ 
glo-Saxon grammar. It was very U'ell received by the 
learned; and, in 1750, Mr. Lye was made a member of 
the Society of Antiquaries, and was prefent.ed to the vi¬ 
carage of Yardley-Haftings. On this promotion he re- 
figned his former living, though- he had hitherto main¬ 
tained his mother, and had two lifters dependent upon 
him. His next publication was of the Gothic Gofpels, 
at the requelt of Eric Benzelius, bifhop of Upfal. This 
appeared from the univerfity-prefs of Oxford, with a 
Gothic grammar prefixed. The great labour of the latter 
part of his life was his Anglo-Saxon and Gothic Dictio¬ 
nary, which he had finifhed and put to the prefs at the 
time of his death in 1767. About thirty (fleets were them 
a printed 3 
