LEG 
^ J' 
L E C 
LECTION ARY, f. [from UElion .] The fervice-book 
in the Roroifh church. Scott. 
LECTISTER'NIUM,/. [Lat. from leflus, a bed, and 
Jlcrnert , to fpread, or prepare.] A folemn ceremony ob- 
ferved by the Romans in times of public danger, wherein 
an entertainment was prepared with great magnificence, 
and ferved up in the temples. The gods were invited to 
partake of the good cheer, and their ftatues placed upon 
couches round the table, in the lame manner as men u(ed 
to fit at meat. The firft lectilternium held at Rome was 
in honour of Apollo, Latona, Diana, Hercules, Mercury, 
and Neptune, to put a Hop to a contagious diftemper 
which raged amongft the cattle, in the year of Rome 354. 
At thefe feafts the Epulones prefid'ed, and the facred ban¬ 
quet was called epulum . Something like the leftilterniuin 
was occafionally obferved amongft the Greeks, according 
to Cafaubon. 
The fame word is fometimes ufed by the moderns to 
denote the apparatus ufed for a bed-ridden patient. 
LEC'TIUS (James), a learned and patriotic citizen of 
Geneva, was born at that city in 1560. After a preli¬ 
minary education at home, he ftudied law under Cujas, 
and, through the influence of Beza, obtained a chair in 
that faculty at Geneva in 1583. In the following year 
he was made counfellor of ftate ; and the zeal and intel¬ 
ligence which he difplayed in the public fervice caufied 
him four times to be appointed to tlie fyndicate, or firft 
office in the government, and to be employed in fame im¬ 
portant negotiations. He was lent, in 1589, to queen 
Elizabeth, in order to obtain forne pecuniary aid for the 
republic, exhaulted by war; and, although that frugal 
princefs would contribute nothing from her own purfe, 
lhe permitted a colleftion to be made throughout the 
kingdom, under the direction of the archbiihop of Can¬ 
terbury. Ledtius went upon afimilar million to Holland, 
and obtained a fum from the prince of Orange and the 
ftates-genera], upon the liberal condition that the aca¬ 
demy of Geneva Ihould be re-eftablilhed, the profellors of 
which had been difmifled. LeGius himfelf, from his love 
to letters, fupported this meafure ; and among his orations 
is one with the title De Studiis liberalibus publica ob mala 
non dfcrcndis. He was employed to maintain the rights of 
the republic with his pen, againft the duke of Savoy ; and, 
when that prince had diflionoured himfelf by the infa¬ 
mous attempt of the efcalade, in 1602, Lectius reprefented 
the aftion in fuch colours to the Swifs cantons, as to ob¬ 
tain the defired fuccours. He afterwards defended the 
proteftant religion againft the attacks of the prefident 
Favre, in an excellent controverfial work. In the midft 
of thefe occupations he found time for various publica¬ 
tions in jurifprudence and in polite literature. He died 
in 1611, regarded by his countrymen as the model of an 
excellent magiftrate and citizen. The legal writings of 
Leftius are contained in the collection entitled, Thefaurus 
juris Romani, continens rariora meliorum Interpretum 
Opufcula ; Lugd. Bat. 5 vols. folio, 1725. His other 
publications, all in Latin, confift chiefly of poems, ora¬ 
tions, pieces of biography. See. Senncbier, Hift. Lit. de 
Geneve. 
LECTOU'RE, a town of France, and principal place 
of a d'iftriCt, in the department of the Gers, fituated on 
a mountain, acceffible only on one fide, near the Gers. 
It is defended by art as well as nature. Before the revo¬ 
lution, it was the feat of a governor and fee of a bifhop. 
The number of inhabitants is about 4.000. It is fixteen 
miles fouth of Agen, and fixteen north of Auch. Lat. 
43. 56. N. Ion. o. 42. E. 
LEC'TUAL, adj. [from the Lat. feblus , a bed.] Confined 
in a bed, proper to be confined in bed. Not ufed. 
LEC'TUM, a promontory, now Cape Baba, feparating 
Troas from AJolia. 
LECTURE, f. \_ledlure, Fr.] A difeourfe pronounced 
upon any fubjeft.—Mark him, whiie Dametas reads his 
ruftic leBure unto him, how to feed his beafis before noon, 
and where to fnade them in the extreme heat. Sidney . 
Vol.XII. No. 84a. 
When in mufic we have fpent an hour, 
Your leblure (hall have leifure for as much. Shakefpeare. 
The aft or practice of reading ; perufal.—In the Icclure 
of holy feripture, their apprehenfions are commonly con-*' 
fined unto the literal fenfe of the text. Brown. — A magif- 
terial reprimand ; a pedantic difeourfe.—Numidia will be 
bleft by Cato’s IcBures. AddiJ'on. 
To LEC'TURE, v. a. To inftruft formally. To inftruft: 
infolently and dogmatically. 
To LEC'TURE, v.n. To read in public; to inftruft 
an audience by a formal explanation or difeourfe: as, 
Wallis leElured on geometry. 
LEC'TURER, J. An inftruftor ; a teacher by way of 
lefture. A preacher in a church hired by the pars'll to 
affift the reftor or vicar.—If any minifter refufed to ad¬ 
mit into his church a leclurcr recommended by them, and 
there was not one orthodox or learned man recommended, 
he was prefently required to attend upon the committee. 
Clarendon. —Thefe lecturers are chofen by the veftry, or 
chief inhabitants of the parifti, and are ufually the Sun- 
day-afternoon preachers ; the law requires that they Ihould 
have the confent of thofe by whom they are employed, 
and likewife the approbation and adrniflion of the •ordi¬ 
nary ; and they are-, at the time of their admiffion, to 
fubferibe to the thirty-nine articles of religion, &c. re¬ 
quired by the 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 4. > If lecturers preach 
in the week days, they mull; read the common-prayer for 
the day wh.en they firlt preach, and declare their affent to 
that book ; they are likewife to do the fame the firft lec¬ 
ture-day in every month, fo long as they continue lec¬ 
turers, or they dial! be difabled to preach till they conform 
to the fame; and, if they preach before fuch conformity, 
they may lie committed to prilon for three months, by 
warrant of two juftices of peace, granted on the certifi¬ 
cate of the ordinary. 
Univerfity fermons or lectures are excepted out of the 
aft concerning lecturers. There are lectures founded by 
the donations of pious perfoits, the lecturers whereof are 
appointed by the founders, without any interpofition or 
confent of reCtors of churches, See. though with the leave 
and approbation of the bilhop. But fuch are not entitled 
to the pulpit wdthout the confent of the reCtor, or vicar, 
in whom the freehold of the church is. 
There are lefturers of divinity, law, phyfic, &c. in the 
univerfitiss of Oxford and Cambridge; and in London 
we have lefturers upon almoft every art and fcience, as 
anatomy, phyfiology, furgery, chemiitry, mufic, the belles 
lettres, See. See. 
LECTURESHIP,/. The office of a lecturer.—He got 
a UElurefhip in town of fixty pounds a-year, where he 
preached conftantiy in perfon. Swift. 
LECTURING, f. The aft of reading leftures ; of re- 
primanding.. 
LECTUR'NIUM, f. in old records; a reading delk. 
LECY'THIS,/. [from Xr,*vQo 5, Gr. a pot; the fruit 
refembling a pot with its lid, or a cup and cover.] In bo¬ 
tany, a genus of the clafs polyandria, order monogynia, 
natural order of myrti, fuff-. The generic characters are 
-—Calyx: perianthium fix-leaved ; leaflets roundilh, con¬ 
cave, permanent. Corolla: petals fix, oblong, obtufe; 
flat, very large ; of which the two upper ones are very 
fpreading. Neftary petal-form, one-leafed ; tongue- 
Ihaped ; flat at the bafe, perforated for the germ, margi- 
nated ; a (trap bent upwards from the lower fide of the 
flower; linear, outwardly convex, thick at the tip, ovate, 
together with the ltamens covering the organs. Staminas 
filaments extremely plentiful, inferted on every fide into 
the interior dilk of the bafe of the neftary, very Ihort, 
thicker above ; antherae oblong, fmall. Piftillum : germ 
deprefled ; acuminated, girt with the receptacle of the 
flower ; liyle very fliort; itigma rather obtufe, conic. Pe- 
ricarpium : roundilh at the bafe, woody, girt above by 
the rudiments of the calyx, truncated, fubquadrilocular, 
circumcifed, with orbicnlated operculum. Seeds feveral, 
• 5 s glofly. 
