412 
LEA 
Heavy; unwilling; motionlefs : 
If thou do’ft find him traftable to us, 
Encourage him, and tell him all our reafons: 
If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling, 
Be thou fo too. Shakefpeare's Richard III, 
Heavy; dull: 
I'll drive with troubled thoughts to take a nap ; 
Left leaden {lumber poize me down to-morrow, 
When I fhould mount with wings of victory. Shakefpeare. 
LEAD'EN-STEP'PING, adj. Slowly moving: 
Call on the lazy leaden-Jlepping hours, 
Whofe fpeed is but the heavy plummet’s pace. Milton. 
LE'ADER,yi One that leads, or conducts. Captain; 
commander.—Thofe efcaped by flight, not without a 
{harp jeft againft their leaders , affirming that, as they had 
followed them into the field, lb it was good reafon they 
fhould follow them out. Hayward. 
When our Lycians fee 
Our brave examples, they admiring fay, 
Behold our gallant leaders. Denham,. 
One who goes firft.—Nay, keep your way, little gallant; 
you were wont to be a follower, now you are a leader. 
Shakejpeare. —One at the head of any party or faction.— 
The underftandings of a fenate are enflaved by three or 
four leaders , fet to get or to keep employments. Swift. 
LE'ADEK WATER, a river of Scotland, which rifes 
in the north-welt part of Berwickfliire, and runs into the 
Tweed three miles eaft of Melrofs. 
LE'ADING, participal adj. Principal; chief; capital. 
—In organized bodies, which are propagated by feed, the 
fhape is the leading quality, and molt charadteriftical part 
that determines the fpecies. Locke. — Miltakes arife from 
the influence of private perfons upon great numbers ftyled 
leading men and parties. Swift. 
LE'ADING-STRINGS, f. Strings by which children, 
when they learn to walk, are held from falling.—Was he 
ever able to walk wdthout leading-Jlrings, or fwim without 
bladders, without being difcovered by his hobbling and 
his finking ? Swift. 
Sound may ferve fuch, ere they to fenfe are grown, 
Like leading-Jlrings, till they can walk alone. Dryden. 
LE'ADLY (Jane), an Englifli fanatic, who, towards 
the conclufion of the feventeenth century, feduced, by 
her vilions, predictions, and dodhines, a confiderable 
number of difciples, among whom there were fome per- 
fons of learning; and thus gave rife to what was called 
the Philadelphian Society. This woman was of opinion 
that all diflenlions among Chriltians would ceafe, and the 
kingdom of the Redeemer become, even here below-, a 
glorious ficene of charity, concord, and felicity, if thofe 
who bear the name of Jelus, without regarding the forms 
of dodtrine or difcipline that diftinguilh particular com¬ 
munions, would all join in committing their fouls to the 
care of the internal guide, to be inftrudfed, governed, and 
formed, by his divine impulfe and fuggeftions. Nay, fhe 
went ftill further, and declared, in the name of the Lord, 
that this defirable event would happen; and that Ihe had 
a divine commiffion to proclaim the approach of this glo¬ 
rious communion of faints, who were to be gathered to¬ 
gether in one vifible univerfal church, or kingdom, before 
the diflblution of this earthly globe. This prediction {he 
delivered with a peculiar degree of confidence, from a no¬ 
tion that her Philadelphian Society was the true kingdom 
of Chrift, in which alone the divine fpirit refided and 
reigned. We {hall not mention the other dreams of this 
enthufiaft, among which the famous dodtrine of the final 
reftoration of all intelligent beings to perfection and hap- 
pinels held an eminent place. Leadley was lei's fortunate 
than Bourignon, (fee vol. iii. p. 317, 18.) that {he had 
not fuch an eloquent and ingenious patron as Poiret to 
plead her caufe, and to give an air of philofophy to her 
wild reveries. For Pordage and Bromley, who were the 
LEA 
chief of her aflociates, had nothing to recommend them, 
but their myftic piety and contemplative turn of mind. 
Pordage, more efpecially, was fo far deftitute of the pow¬ 
ers of elocution and reafoning, that he even furpafled Ja¬ 
cob Boehmen, whom he admired, in obfeurity and non- 
fenfe; and, inftead of imparting inftrudfion to his read¬ 
ers, did no more than excite in them a ftupid kind of awe 
by a high-founding jingle of pompous words. The time 
of her death is not known. Mojheim's Eccl. Hijl. vol. v. 
LE'ADMAN, f. One who begins or leads a dance: 
Such a light and mettled dance 
Saw you never, 
And by leadmen for the nonce, 
That turn round like grindle-ftones. Ren Jonfon, 
LEAD'WORT,/. in botany. See Plumbago. 
LE'AF, / leaves, plural; [leap, Sax. leaf, Dut.] The 
green deciduous parts of plants and flowers.—For the 
ufe of leaves in vegetable phyfiology, and the various 
kinds of them, with figures, fee the article Botany, vol. 
iii. p. 240-2+6. and Plate IV. V. VI. VII.—Thofe things 
which are removed to a-diftant view, ought to make but 
one mafs; as the leaves on the trees, and the billows in 
the fea. Dryden. 
This is the ftate of man; to-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blofloms. Shakefp, 
A part of a book, containing two pages : 
Perufe my leaves through ev’ry part, 
And think thou feeft my owner’s heart 
Scrawl’d o’er with trifles. Swift. 
One fide of a double door.—The two leaves of the one 
door were folding. 1 Kings .—Any thing foliated, or thinly 
beaten.—In horology, an appellation given to the teeth of 
pinions. 
The art of raifing trees from leaves has been long 
known; the firft account of which was publiftied by 
Agoftino Mandirola, an Italian of the Francifcan order, 
who allures us that he produced trees from the leaves of 
the cedar and lemon-tree. In the garden of baron Munch- 
haufen, a young tree was obtained from a leaf of the li- 
mon a rivo, which yielded fruit the fecond year. It is 
more than probable that the multiplication of the opuntia, 
or Indian fig, firft fuggefted the idea of fuch experiments; 
for every joint of that plant u'hen ftuck into the earth, 
and properly nurtured, throws out roots, and grows. 
One help for acquiring a knowledge of the anatomy of 
plants, is the art of reducing leaves to fkeletons, which 
may be done by expofing the leaves to decay for fome 
time foaked in water, by which means the fofter will be 
feparated from the internal harder parts. By carefully 
wiping, prefling, and rinfing, them, the harder parts may 
be obtained from the reft alone and entire. Some have 
.been able to feparate the outer covering on both fides 
from the woody net, and even to fplit the latter into two. 
A naturalift in the year 1645 firft conceived the idea of 
making leaf-Jkcletons by employing decompofition for that 
purpole, aihiting it by feveral ingenious operations of art. 
When the method of producing thefe Ikeletons was pub¬ 
licly known, numberlefs preparations of them w'ere every 
where attempted. So much did leaf-flceletons afterwards 
engage the attention of philofophers, that one Seligmann 
wrote a treatife on the various methods of which may be 
employed in their preparation. 
To LEAF, v. n. To bring leaves; to bear leaves.—Molt 
trees fall off the leaves at autumn 5 and, if not kept back 
by cold, would leaf about the folltice. Brown. 
LEAF-GOLD, f. Gold beaten into exceedingly thin 
plates.— Leaf-gold, that flies in the air as light as down, 
is as truly gold as that in an ingot. Dighy. 
LEAF-SILVER,/ Silver beaten into leaves.—Eleven 
ounces two-pence fterling ought to be of fo pure filver as 
is called leaf-filver ; and then the melter mult add of other 
weight feventeen-pence halfpenny farthing. Camden. 
3 LEAF- 
