5 33 
L E S 
her of the Academy of Berlin; and foon after was ap¬ 
pointed fecretary to general Tauenzier, whom he accom¬ 
panied to Breflau. His appointments were confiderable, 
and he fpent them liberally upon his relations and friends. 
His military aflociates gave him a tafte for high play, 
which he found arguments to juftify. 
In 1762 Leffing accompanied his general to the liege of 
Schweidnitz. After the peace he was introduced to the 
king of Pruffia, who was, however, a fparing favourer ot 
the German mufes. He refumed his literary occupation 
at Berlin, and produced in 1767 his comedy of “Minna 
von Barnheim,” which has been given to the Engliffi pub¬ 
lic under the title of Love and Honour. His Laoccon, a 
dilfertation on the limits of poetry and painting, appeared 
in the preceding vear. An invitation from a fociety of 
lovers of the drama at Hamburg, who wilhed for his af- 
fifiance in eftablifiling, a ciaffical theatre in that city, drew 
him thither in 1767; and, upon his removal, he fold the 
greatelt part of a voluminous library which he had accu¬ 
mulated. He a {fumed the critical office in a weekly paper 
entitled the Hamburg Dramaturgy, which was continued 
till April 1768 ; they were afterwards publiihed in two vo¬ 
lumes, and form a mafs of valuable dramatic criticifm. 
The circumftances of Leffing continued to be narrow; 
and in 1769 he was obliged to fell the feleft remains of 
his library. It was at this junfture that he met with a 
generous patron in Leopold, heir-apparent to the duke of 
Brunfwick, through whofe means he was appointed libra¬ 
rian at Wolfenbuttle. This fituation could not fail of 
being agreeable to a man of letters, on account of the 
great collection of curious hooks and manufcripts to 
which it gave him accefs. One of its fruits was a perio¬ 
dical publication entitled “ Contributions to Literary 
Hiftory,” containing notices and extra ft s of the molt re¬ 
markable manufcripts. In 1771 he gave a new edition 
of his mifcellaneous w'orks ; and, in 1772, his popular 
play of Emilia Galotti appeared on the llage. His “ Con¬ 
tributions” were made the vehicle of “Fragments of an 
anonymous Writer dilcovered in the Library at Wolfen¬ 
buttle,” which confided of direft attacks upou the Chrif- 
tian revelation and the gofpel hiftory. Whether they 
were Leffing’s own, or the compofition of forne of his af- 
fociates, is not afcertained. They occafioned a great com¬ 
motion among the German theologians, and could not 
have been printed without the influence of prince Leo¬ 
pold over the licenfers of the prefs. At length, but not 
till 1778, the interference of the confiftory produced the 
fuppreffion of the work in which they appeared. 
In 1775 Leffing married a widow-lady at Vienna. Not 
long after, he fet out on a tour through Italy with prince 
Leopold, and during his abfence his wife died of a mil- 
carriage. He was now fo diftinguifhed a charafter among 
the German literati, that feveral potentates of that coun¬ 
try made him offers of an advantageous fettlemer.t. He 
could not, however, be prevailed upon to break his con¬ 
nexions with his liberal patron the prince of Brunfwick, 
who, by his acceffion in 1780 to the fovereignty, was en¬ 
abled to augment his favours towards him. His publica¬ 
tion of “ Nathan the Wife” might be regarded as difplay- 
ing his final fentiments concerning the difference of re¬ 
ligions. It is by fome accounted his dramatic tnafter- 
piece, though calculated more for the clofet than the ftage ; 
by means of Schiller’s curtailments, it lias, however, been 
frequently afted with fuccefs. A fecond part of this 
dyama, entitled “ The Monk of Lebanon,” and a “ Dil¬ 
fertation on the Education of the Human Race,” were the 
chief produftions of the laft years of his life, in which his 
health was rapidly declining. Lethargic fymptoms an¬ 
nounced an approaching end, which took place at Ham¬ 
burg in February 1781. Monthly Mag. vo). xix. xx. 
LES'SIUS (Leonard), a learned Flemifh jefuit, was 
born at Brechtan, near Antwerp, in the year 1554. Hav¬ 
ing entered into the order, and completed his courle of 
academical ftudies, he exhibited fuch proofs of talents 
and learning, as induced his fuperiors to appoint him, at 
firft profefibr of philofophy, and afterwards of divinity, in 
Voju XII. No. 2^0. 
L E S 
their college at Louvain. In both thefe capacities he ac¬ 
quitted himfelf with very high reputation. He boldly op- 
pofed the doftrine of Aquinas concerning grace, not with- 
itanding that it was recommended to the Jefuits by their 
founder; and, in the year 1586, ably controverted it in fe¬ 
veral public tliefes. This alarmed the faculty of divinity . t 
Louvain, who cenfured thirty-four propofitions felett.d 
from Leffius’s tliefes, and charged the author with femi- 
pelagianilin. In this cenfure the faculty was joined "by 
the univerlity of Douay, and by a confiderable part of the 
eccleliaflics in rlie Low Countries; while, on the other 
hand, lie was fupported by the univerlities of Mentz, 
Treves, and Ingoldftadt. Leffius died in 1623, at the age 
of fixty-nine, regarded by his lociety as the vanquisher of 
the Thomifts. It is faid, that his fraternity inclofed in a 
Ihrine, as a (acred relic, one of the fingers with which he 
had written his treadles on grace. Leffius was intimately 
acquainted with divinity, law, mathematics, medicine, 
and hiftory, as his works abundantly teftify. The prin¬ 
cipal of them are, 1. De Juiiitia et Jure, folio, which was 
prolcribed by the parliaments of France. 2. DePoteftate 
Stimuli Pontificis, maintaining the higheft pretenfions of 
the papal fee, which wSs condemned like the’former; and 
a variety of treadles, which were collefted together in 
two volumes folio. The author had adopted the opinions 
of Cornaro on health; and he drew up a work iiluftrating 
the advantages of regularity and temperance, which was 
printed at Antwerp in 1563, under the title of Hygiajli~ 
con, feu Vera Ratio Valetudinis Borne. Moreri. 
LESS'OE, an illand of Denmark, in the Scaggerac, nine 
miles long, and from one to four wide. It contains a 
few villages, and round about the coall are feveral iftets. 
It is about twelve miles from the coaft of Jutland, and 
twenty-five from Norway. Lat. 57. 17. N. Ion. 11. E. 
LESS'OE, a town of Norway, in the province of Ag~ 
gerhuus: 145 miles north north-weft of Christiania. 
LESS ON, f. \lefon, Fr. UElio, Lat.] Any thing read or 
repeated to a teacher, in order to improvement: 
I but repeat that lejfon 
Which I have learn’d from thee. Denham's Sophy. 
Precept; notion inculcated.—Be not jealous over the wife 
of thy bofom, and teach her not an evil lejjon againft thy- 
felf. Ecelus. ix. 1. 
This day’s enfample hath this lejfon dear 
Deep written in my heart with iron pen, 
That blifs may not abide in (iateof mortal men. Fairy-Queen. 
Tune pricked for an inftrument.—Tliofe good laws were 
like good lejfons fet for a flute out of tune ; of which lejfons 
little ufe can be made, till the flute be made fit to lie played 
on. Davies on Ireland. — A rating lefture.—She would give 
her a lejfon for walking fo late, that ffiould make her keep 
within doors for one fortnight. Sidney. —Portions of Scrip¬ 
ture read in divine fervice.—Notwithftanding fo eminent 
properties, whereof lejfons are happily deftitute ; yet, lejfons 
being free from fome inconveniencies whereunto lermens 
are molt fubjeft, they may, in this relpeft, no lefs take, 
than in other they mult give, the hand which betekeneth 
pre-eminence. Hooker. 
In our church-fervice, the firft leffon is introduced im¬ 
mediately after the Pfalms ; 1 b that, having difeharged the 
flrft part of our duty, the praife of God, we proceed to the 
fecond objeft of worfltip, to hear God's holy word, agree¬ 
able to the Exhortation. And by this change, an agree¬ 
able relpite, or iutermiffion, is given to the bent of the 
mind ; for, as the thoughts-were required to be aftive in 
the Pfalms, it is fufficient in the Leffons if they hold 
thetnlelves attentive. The firft leffon is taken put of the 
Old Teftament, the fecond out of the New, to (how the 
harmony between the Law and the Gofpel; for what is 
the Law, but the Gofpel forelhowed ? what the Gofpel, 
but the Law fulfilled ? things there prefigured are here 
performed. Thus the minds of the hearers are gradually 
led from darker revelations to clearer views; and prepared 
by the veils of the Law, to bear the light breaking forth 
in the Gofpel. 
6 U 
Joinin 
