538 
LET 
Soofos bailee, and the dried leaves of a plant called in 
Sooioo fugAa, £re boiled for fome time in water, in an iron 
pot; when this is removed from the fire, the patient is 
feated over it, and is covered with cotton cloths, a 
procefs which never fails to excite a copious perfpiration. 
This mode of cure is repeated two or three times a-day, 
and is perfifted in for a confiderable length of time, until 
the difeafe be carried off, or appears to be gaining ground. 
No internal medicines are given in the complaint. 
LE'THE, [Gr. oblivion.] In mythology, one of the 
rivers of hell, whofe waters the fouls of the dead drank 
after they had been confined for a certain fpace of time 
in Tartarus. It had the power of making them forget 
whatever they had done, feen, or heard, before; and even, 
according to Virgil, that they had lived. Lethe is a 
river of Africa, near the Syrtes, which runs under the 
ground, and fome time after rifes again, whence the ori¬ 
gin of the fable of the Lethean ftreams of oblivion.— 
There is alfo a river of that name in Spain.—Another in 
Bceotia, whofe waters were drunk by thofe who confulted 
the oracle of Trophonius: 
Lethe , the river of oblivion, rolls 
His vvat’ry labyrinth, which whofo drinks 
Forgets both joy and grief. Milton. 
LE'THE, a river of Germany, which runs into the 
Hunte two miles from Oldenburg. 
LE'THE,/. [Greek.] Oblivion; a draught of obli¬ 
vion : 
The conquering wine hath lleept our fenfe 
In foft and delicate lethe. Shakefpeare. 
LE'THEED, adj. [from Lethe.] Oblivious: 
Sharpen with cloylefs fauce his appetite; 
That deep and'feeding may prorogue his honour. 
Even till a letkeed dullnefs. How now, Varius? Shakefp. 
LETHEN'DY, a town of Scotland, in the county of 
Perth : fix miles weft-north-weft of Coupar. 
LETH'ERINGSETT, a village near Holt in Norfolk; 
fo pleafantly fituated as fometimes to be called the Gar¬ 
den of Norfolk. Here is porter-brewery. 
LETH'ERS, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Sumbulpour: fixteen miles weft-north-weft of Sumbul- 
pour. 
LETHIF'EROUS, adj. [from the Lat. lethum, death, 
and fero, to bring.] Deadly, bringing death. Bailey. 
LE'THRABERG, or Ledreborg, a town of Den¬ 
mark, in the ifland of Zealand : four miles fouth-weft of 
Roefchild. 
LE'THUM, in ancient mythology, was diftinguiflied 
by the Roman poets from Mors, or Death. Mr. Spence 
conjeXures, that by Lethum they meant that general 
principle, or fource of mortality, which they fuppofe to 
have its proper refidence in hell; and by Mors, or Mortes, 
the immediate caufe of each particular inftance of morta¬ 
lity on our earth. The poets give him a robe, but men¬ 
tion his arms being exferted out of it, as reaching at his 
prey. They hint at his.catching people in a net, and his 
hunting them as they did beafts, within his toils. They 
reprefent Lethum as nearly related to Sleep; and Valerius 
Flaccus, in particular, acquaints us that they were bro¬ 
thers. Val. Fine. viii. 74. Spence's Polymetis , 263. Petronius 
Arbiter. 
LE'TI, a fmall Hland in the Eaftern-Indian Sea, near 
the ifland of Timor. Lat. 8. 28. N. Ion. 127. 15. E. 
LE'TI (Gregory), a copious writer of hiftory, was 
born in 1630, at Milan, of a family originally from Bo¬ 
logna. He received his education at the Jefuits’ college 
at Cofenza, and afterwards paffed fome years in an unfet¬ 
tled ftate, not very regular in his manners, and manifeft- 
jng a great repugnance for the ecclefiaftical profeftion, 
which was propofed to him by his uncle, the bifliop of 
Aquapendente. Falling in company with a Calvinilt of¬ 
ficer at Genoa, he w’as induced to call in queftion the 
doXrines of the llcmnn-catholic faith; and, after an abode 
LET 
at Geneva for further inftruXion, he made open profeffion 
of the reformed religion at Laufimne. He returned to 
Geneva in 1660, married the daughter of a phyfician, and 
fettled in that city in the quality of a man of letters, ftiil 
preferving his connexions with many literary characters 
in Italy. Such was his credit, that he obtained gratui¬ 
tously the right of citizenfliip at Geneva in 1674? His 
quarrelfome and fatirical humour, however, at length in¬ 
volved him in fucb troubles, that in 1680 he retired to 
England. He was favourably received by Charles II. 
who gave him a confiderable penfion, and pronfifed him 
the ollice of royal hiftoriographer. But, having exercifed 
his pen, in his work entitled Teatro Britannico, with a free¬ 
dom which difpleafed the court, he was commanded to 
quit the kingdom. He then went to Amfterdam, and 
formed a connexion with the celebrated Le Clerc, who 
married his daughter: he obtained the title of hiftorio- 
grapher of that city, where he died in 1701. 
Leti was one of the mod fertile and induftrious writers 
of his time; the catalogue of his works gives the feparate 
titles of forty, amounting to about one hundred volumes. 
Molt of them are hiftorical; but, though he is faid to 
have poffeifed thofe requifites for an hiftorian, of being 
without country and without religion, he was deftitute 
of the more effential quality of regard to truth. He bim- 
felf affirms that he replied to the dauphinefs, who quef- 
tioned him as to the veracity of his hiftory of pope Sixtus 
V. “ that a ftory well imagined gave more pleafure than 
truth ftript of ornament.” He offered his pen to fale; 
and, even when not mercenary, was led away by his paf- 
fions. It is, however, to be obferved, that his defertion 
of the Roman-catholic religion, and the bitternefs and 
freedom with which, on all occafions, he expofes its frauds 
and errors, has caufed him to be judged without mercy 
by the writers of that communion. All his w'orks are 
written in Italian, in a ftyle lively but diffufe and void 
of tafte. Among the belt known of his produXions are 
the lives of Sixtus V. of Charles V. of queen Elizabeth, 
of Philip II. of Cromwell, and of the duke of Offuna. 
Some of his fevereft attacks on the church of Rome are 
his Nepotifmo di Roma, Cardinalifnjo de Santa Chiefa, 
and Itinerario della Corte de Roma. But his writings, 
though ftiil occafionally read, cannot be ufed as authority. 
Tirabofehi. 
LETIF'ICAL, adj. [from the Lat. latus, joyful, and 
facio, to make.] Making glad. Cole. 
To LETIF'ICATE, v.a. To make glad. Bailey. 
LET'LING, a town of Brandenburg, in the New Mark: 
five miles eaft of Cuftrin. 
LET'NA, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the Viatka 
at Podrellkoi. 
LE'TO, a river which rifes in the marquifate of Anco¬ 
na, and runs into the Adriatic three miles eaft of Fermo. 
LETSCH'KOM, or Odisch, a town of Afiatic Tur¬ 
key, and capital of Mingrelia ; the refidence of the Da- 
dian, or chief, and the fee of a Greek archbiffiop : fixty 
miles north of Cotatis. 
LET'TER, /. [from let.'] One who lets, or permits. 
One who hinders. Oire who gives vent to any thing; as, 
a blood-letter. 
LET'TER, f. \_lettre, Fr. litera, Lat.] One of the ele¬ 
ments of fyliables.—A fuperfeription was written over 
him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Luke xxiii. 38. 
—A written meflage ; an epiftle.—When a Spaniard would' 
write a letter by him, the Indian would marvel how it 
fliould be poffible, that he, to whom lie came, ffiould be 
able to know all things. Abbot .—The ftile of letters ought 
to be free, eafy, and natural; as near approaching to fa¬ 
miliar conversation as poffible; the two belt qualities in 
converfation are, good humour and good breeding; thofe 
letters are therefore certainly the belt that lhow the moil 
of thefe two qualities. Waljli. 
I have a letter from her 
Of fuch contents as you will wonder at. Shakefpeare. 
Th$ 
