552 LEY 
To bring to equality of condition.—Reafod can never af- 
fent to the admiflion of thofe brutifh appetites which would 
over-run the foul, and level its fuperior with its inferior 
faculties. Decay of Piety. —To point in taking aim 5 to aim : 
One to the gunners on St. Jago’s tow’r. 
Bid ’em for (liame level their cannon lower. Dryden. 
To direft to any end.—The whole l^ody of puritans was 
drawn to be abettors of all villainy by a few men, whofe 
defigns from, the fir ft were levelled to deftroy both religion 
and government. Swift. —To fuit; to proportion: 
Behold the law 
And rule of beings in your Maker’s mind : 
And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw. 
To fit the levelVd. ufe of humankind. Dryden. 
To LEV'EL, v. n. To aim at; to bring the gun or ar¬ 
row to the fame direftion with the mark.—The glory of 
God, and the good of his church, was the thing which 
the apoftles aimed at, and therefore ought to be the mark 
whereat we alfo level. Hooker. —To conjecture ; to attempt 
to guefs.—I pray thee overname them ; and,as thou named 
them, I will defcribe them ; and, according to my defcrip- 
tion, level at my affeftion. Skakefpeare. —To be in the fame 
direction with a mark : 
He to his engine flew, 
Plac’d near at hand in open view. 
And rais’d it till it leveled right 
Againft the glow-worm tail of kite. Hudibras. 
To make attempts; to aim.—Ambitious York did level at 
thy crown. Shakefpeare. —To efface diftinclion or fupe- 
riority : as, Infamy is always trying to level. —To accord : 
With fuch accommodation and befort, 
As levels with her breeding. Skakefpeare's Othello. 
LEV'EL, f. A plane; a furface without protuberances 
or inequalities.—Thofe bred in a mountainous country 
overfize thofe that dwell on low levels. Sandys's Travels .— 
Rate ; ftandard ; cuftomary height.—The praifes of mili¬ 
tary men infpired me with thoughts above my ordinary 
level. Dryden. —Suitable or proportionate height: 
It might perhaps advance their minds fo far 
Above the level of fubjeftion, as 
T’ affume to them the glory of that war. Daniel. * 
A ftate of equality.—Providence, for the mod part, fets 
us upon a level, and obferves proportion in its difpenfa- 
tions towards us. Addifon's Speflator. —Rule; planjfcheme: 
borrowed from the mechanic level: 
Be the fair level of thy aftions laid. 
As temp’rance wills, and prudence may perfuade, 
And try if life be worth the liver’s care. Prior. 
The line of direction in which any miffive weapon is aimed : 
Thrice happy is that humble pair, 
Beneath the level of all care, 
Over whofe heads thofe arrows fly 
Of fad diftruft and jealoufy. Walter. 
The line in which the fight paffes: 
Fir’d at firft fight with what the mufe imparts, 
In fearlefs youth we tempt the heights of arts ; 
While from the bounded level of our mind 
Short views we take, nor fee the lengths behind. Pope. 
An inftrument whereby mafons adjuft their work.—The 
level is from two to ten feet long, that it may reach over a 
confiderable length of the work ; if the plumb line hang 
juft upon the perpendicular, when the level is fet flat down 
upon the work, the work is level ; but, if it hangs on ei¬ 
ther fide the perpendicular, the floor or work mult be 
railed on that fide, till the plumb-line hang exactly 
on the perpendicular. Moxon's Mechanical Exercifes. —An 
inftrument which enables us to find a line parallel to 
•the horizon, or concentric with the circumference of the 
L E V 
earth, and to continue it to any diftance : to form a fur- 
face exaftly level, having all its points at equal diftances 
from the earth’s centre ; or to find the difference of afeent 
between feveral places, for the purpofe of making roads, 
conducing water, draining low grounds, rendering rivers 
navigable, forming canals, &c. &c. A great variety of 
inftruments have been invented for thefe purpofes; for 
which, and their application, fee the article Surveying. 
LEV'ELLER,/. One who makes any thing even. One 
who deftroys fuperiority; one who endeavours to bring 
all to the fame ftate of equality.—You are an everlalting 
leveller ; you won’t allow encouragement to extraordinary 
merit. Collier. 
Leveller, in agriculture, the name of a machine, in¬ 
vented by Mr. David Charles, fteward to lieutenant-colonel 
Hardy, of Weftmead in Carmarthenftiire, for the purpofe 
of rendering high ridges and other inequalities, in iuch 
lands as are in a ftate of cultivation, more level and even 
in their turfaces Such a machine is ftated to be ufeful 
and neceffary, even in the moft fertile parts of the coun¬ 
try, where the improved fyftem of drill-hufbandry has been 
introduced, or even where there is any attention to the 
wafte of time, or to the eafe of cattle in the aft of plough¬ 
ing ; in order to get rid of crooked or unequal ridges, 
without either a fummer fallow by crofs-ploughing, or elfe 
by frequent repetitions of ploughing in the winter and 
fpring, which the humidity of this climate will not allow 
in every kind of foil. “ Fourteen acres of land were re¬ 
duced with this tool by the inventor to a perfeft level, 
where the crowns of the ridges were about two feet higher 
than the furrows, and where they were crooked and of 
unequal breadths. But the chief fuccefs has been upon a 
field of eight acres, which lay in an unprofitable ftate, and 
which is a deep clay, that had produced a crop of wheat 
from an old lay-fod the former year, without any manure, 
which was winter-ploughed, and lay in that ftate until the 
machine was introduced the firft dry weather in April. 
It was preceded by two horfe-ploughs, taking perhaps 
the fquare of an acre at once; thefe loofened the foil the 
depth of a common furrow, and twice the breadth acrofs 
the ridges. The leveller followed, drawn by two oxen 
and two horfes, with a man at each handle, to prefs it 
down where the height was to be removed, and to lift up 
the body by the handles where it was to be difeharged. 
Thus, four men, one driver, and eight head of cattle, will 
more effectually level from half an acre to three roods in 
one day, according as the earth is light or heavy, than 
fixty or eighty men would accomplifh with harrows and 
fhovels, &c. even with the afliltance of a plough. In fandy 
ground, where the depth of one furrow will bring all to 
a level, as much, of courfe, will be done in one day as two 
ploughs can cover ;” but in this cafe, the ground required 
to be gone over feveral times. It is further ftated, that, 
“ after this field was levelled, the backs of the ridges, as they 
are termed, which were ftripped of their vegetable mould, 
were ploughed up, the furrows not requiring it. They 
were alfo harrowed, and the field copioufly manured with 
lime-compoft, harrowed in, and broke into nine-feet ridges, 
perfeftly ftraight, in order to introduce DuckitVdrill. It 
was fown under furrow, broad-caft, the laft of it not un¬ 
til the 1 3th of May ; and was cut down, a reafonable crop, 
the 4th of September, i8oa.” And “the field now lies 
in a proper form, well manured, with the advantage of a 
fair crop from heavy tenacious ground, without lofing a 
feafon, and in a year by no means favourable.” The 
writer is “ well aware there are many Ihallow foils, where 
it may be hazardous to remove the enriched furface, and 
truft perhaps one half of the land for a crop that had ne¬ 
ver before been expofed to the atmofphere; but, where the 
foil is fufiiciently deep, or there is a good under-ftratum, 
with manure at hand to correft what is four for want of 
expofure and tillage, it is evident, from this experiment, 
that no ritk is run.” And “to avoid the expenle of a 
fallow, ar.d to lay put ground in ftraight and even ridges, 
even where the drill-hufbandry is not practifed, fhould 
be 
