Z A S 
LAST'AGE,/I [ lajlaginjn , Lat.] A cuftom exacted in 
fome fairs aiul markets, to carry things bought where 
one will, by the interpretation of Raftal. Bat it is more 
accurately taken for the ballalt or lading of a (hip. Laft- 
age is alfo defined to be that cuftora which is paid for 
wares fold by the laft; as herrings, pitch, &c. 
LAS'TEIN, a town of Pruflia, in the province of Sam- 
land : fifteen miles fouth-eaft of Ragnitz. 
LAS'TERY, f. A red colour. Obfolete: 
The balhful blood her fnowy cheeks did fpread. 
That her became as polifh’d ivory, 
Which cunning craftfman’s hand hath overlaid 
With fair vermilion, or pure lajlery. Spenjer. 
LASTHE'MIA, a woman’s name; (he was adifciple of 
Plato. 
LAST'ING, adj. Continuing; durable.—Every vio¬ 
lence offered weakens and impairs, and renders the body 
lefs durable and lajling. Ray— Of long continuance ; per¬ 
petual.—A finew cracked feldom recovers its former 
ftrength, and the memory of it leaves a lajling caution in 
the man, not to put the part quickly again to any robuft 
employment. Locke. 
The grateful work is done, 
The feeds of difeord fow’d, the war begun t 
Frauds, fears, and fury, have poffefs’d the Itate, 
And fix’d the caufes of a lajling hate. Dryden. 
LAS'TING,yi The aft or date of enduring. 
LA'STINGI.Y, adv. Perpetually ; durably. 
LA'STINGNESS, f. Durablenefs ; continuance.—All 
more lading than beautiful, but that the confideration of 
the exceeding lajlingnefs made the eye believe it was ex¬ 
ceeding beautiful. Sidney. 
LASTISA'NA, a town of Italy, in the country of 
Friuli: fe’ven miles eaft of Concordia. 
LAST'LY, adv. In the lalt place.—I will jufiify the 
quarrel; fecondly balance the forces ; and, lajl/y, pro¬ 
pound variety of defigns for choice, but not advife the 
choice Bacon. —In the conclufion ; at lalt; finally. 
LAST'MAN (Peter), born at Haerlem in the year 1581, 
was an hiltorical painter of merit, and is reported to have 
been one of the inltru&ors of Rembrandt. Laftman etched 
feveral plates after his own conipofitions, in a very good 
tafle, which are at prefent very rare ; of thefe we can only 
fpecify two, the fubjects of which are, Judah and Tamar, 
introduced into a landfcape, in fmall folio; and a female 
veiled, reclining in a bower, in 4to. 
LAST'MAN (Nicholas), fon of the preceding, born at 
Haerlem in 1619, was inftrufted in the elements of paint¬ 
ing, and the general rudiments of art, by John Pinas ; and 
it is probable he learned engraving from Saenredam. His 
engraving of the Good Samaritan, from a picture by him- 
felf, is probably his chef-d’ceu-vre. The (lory is introduced 
in a very pifturefque landfcape, towards the right fide of 
which appears a (tone-bridge over a river, along which 
the uncharitable pried and Levite are walking. 
LAS'TRES, a feaport town and cape of Spain, on the 
north coaft of Alturia : thirty miles north-eaft of Oviedo. 
Lat. 43.33. N. Ion. 5.19. W. 
LAS'TRINGE, a town of Sweden, in Sudermanland : 
twelve miles north of Nykoping. 
LAS'VA, a river of Bofnia, which runs into the Mifna 
near Pfenitza. 
LAS'ULA, a fmall ifland near the eaft coaft of Lugon. 
Lat. 13.27. N. Ion. 123. 57. E. 
LA'SUS, was born at Hermione, a city of Achaia, in 
the time of Darius Hyftafpes, in the 58th Olympiad, 538 
years B. C. Diogenes Laertius fays, that he deferves to 
be. ranked among the feven fages. He was generally al¬ 
lowed to be the firft among the Greeks who wrote about 
mufic; and was not only a theorift and great practitioner, 
but a dithyrambic poet, perhaps the inventor of that kind 
of poetry in honour of Bacchus which was fung in the 
Phrygian mode at the public games, and partook of all 
Vol.XII. No. 827. 
lat m 
that fire and hilarity which the god to whom it was ad- 
drefled infpired. Plutarch (ays, that he introduced new 
rhythms in his poetry and dithyrambic mufic, and upon 
the lyre imitated the compafs and variety of the flute; for 
which he is mentioned, in the Dialogue on Mufic, as a 
great innovator. Theon of Smyrna tellifies that Lafus, as 
well as the Pythagorean Kippafus of Metapontus, made 
ufe of two vafes of the dune fize and tone, in order to cal¬ 
culate the exadt ratio or proportion of concords: for, by 1 
leaving one of the vafes empty, and filling the other half 
full of water, they became oftaves to each other; and, 
filling one a fourth part full, and the other a third, the 
percuflion of the two veflels produced the concords of 4th 
and 5th ; from which procefs reful ted the proportions of 
thefe three concords contained in the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4. 
This aflertion, which has been taken upon trull, like the 
anvil-ftory of Pythagoras, is equally falfe. To tune glades 
by water, has been lately praftifed, and thought a new 
difeovery ; but that their tones are altered in the propor¬ 
tions given above, is by no means true. Molt glades are 
lowered about a whole tone by being half filled with wa¬ 
ter, and not more than a major 6th if quite filled. 
LAT'ABI, a town of Africa, belonging to the king¬ 
dom of Aquambo. 
LATAC', a town of Thibet, on the north fide of ths 
Ganges. Lat. 30. 55. N. Ion. 74. 34. E. 
LATACUN'GA, a town of South America, andjurif- 
dibtion in the audience of Quito, containing 12,000 inha¬ 
bitants. This town was deftroyed by an earthquake ira 
the year 1698, and a great number of the inhabitants were 
buried in its ruins. Of 600 (tone houfes, only part of one, 
and a church, are now (landing. It is fifty miles foutiv 
of Quito. Lat. 0.58. S. Ion. 78. 16. W. 
LATA'KIA, a feaport town of Syria, built by Seleu- 
cus Nicanor, who called it Laodicea, the name of his mo¬ 
ther ; fituated at the bafe and on the fouthern fide of a 
fmall peninfula, which projects half a league into the fea. 
Its port, like all the others on this coaft, is a fort of bafon, 
environed by a mole, the entrance of which is very nar¬ 
row. It might contain twenty-five or thirty' veflels, but 
the Turks have fullered it fo to be choked up, as (carcely 
to admit four. Ships of above 400 tons cannot ride there, 
and hardly a year pafles that one is not ftranded in the en¬ 
trance ; notwithftanding this, Latakia carries on a very 
great commerce, confiding chiefly of tobacco, of which 
upwards of twenty cargoes are annually fent to Damiettaj 
the returns from thence are rice, which is bartered in Up¬ 
per Syria for oils and cottons. This place was vifited by 
an earthquake on the 26th of April, 1796, at a few mi¬ 
nutes pad nine o’clock in the morning. The fea was 
then perfectly calm ; not a breeze nor the flighted agita¬ 
tion could be perceived in the air; the (ky was fomewhat 
hazy, and the fun appeared pale. The (hock was pre¬ 
ceded by a fubterraneous noife, loud enough to drown 
that which was occafioned by the fall of houfes ; or, to 
fpeak more correctly, thefe two noifes were almoft firnul- 
taneous, and fo blended that nobody had time to efcape. 
So fudden was the overthrow of the houfes, that even 
thofe perfons who occupied the ground-floors, and hap¬ 
pened to be in a (landing pofture, could not reach the 
threfhold of the doors. The tobacco ftore-houfe, fituated 
near the port, a large building, and conftrufted with great 
folidity, w'as laid proftrate in a mafs, and fo abruptly, that 
not an' individual efcaped : the aga, his officers, and four 
hundred workmen, there loft their lives. Upon the whole, 
one third of the town was deftroyed, and fifteen hundred 
perfons were killed. Latakia is fifty miles Couth of An¬ 
tioch, and feventy (buth-well of Aleppo. Lat. 35.36.N. 
Ion. 35. 50. E. 
LATALAT'TA, one of the Molucca iflands. Lat. 
o. 3. S. Ion. 127, 5. E. 
LATANG', a town of Thibet: nine miles fouth of 
Dfaprong. 
LATA'NIA, f. in botany, a name given by Commer- 
fon to a kind of palm, found in the Ille de Bourbon, and 
3 A whick 
