LEV 
554 
the univerfity, he went to refide with his mother, and af¬ 
terwards fettled at his family-feat, which he rendered fa¬ 
mous by the belt aviary in the kingdom. He next ex¬ 
tended his views to all branches of natural hiftory, and 
became at length polfelfed of one of the fineft mufeums in 
the world, [paring no expenfe in procuring fpecimens from 
the molt distant regions. This mufeum was difpofed of 
by lottery in 1785, but to the great lofs of the proprietor. 
It was, for fome years after this, exhibited to the public 
at a fmall charge; but is now difperfed, the articles hav¬ 
ing been fold Separately by audtion. Sir Afhton died in 
1780. 
LE'VER (Darcy, Great, and Little), three populous 
townfhips of Lancashire, in the neighbourhood of Bury. 
LEVERA'NO, a town of Naples, in the province of 
Otranto: feven miles north of Nardo. 
LEVfERET, f. [ licvret , Fr.] A young hare: 
Their travels o’er that filver field does fliow 
Like track of leverets in morning fnow. Waller. 
LEV'ERETT, a townShip of North America, in Hamp- 
Ihire-county, Malfachufetts, near Connecticut River; 
ninety-four miles weft from Bofton; incorporated in 
1774. A copper-mine has been lately difeovered in this 
townfhip. 
LEV'ERIDGE (Richard), was a finger of Purcell’s 
fongs in the time of Charles II. and in that of William 
and Mary. During the reign of queen Anne, he per¬ 
formed in 1706 the part of Sir Trufty, in Addifon’s Ro- 
famond ; and, in the firft attempts at opera on the Italian 
model, he fang his part in Englifb, in Camilla and Tho- 
myris; while Nicolini, Valentini, and the Margarita, per¬ 
formed theirs in Italian. He had a deep and powerful 
bafe voice; was a ufeful performer on the Englifii ftage 
on many occafions; and was not without genius for poe¬ 
try and composition, as far as a ballad went. As he was 
not only a celebrated finger of convivial longs, but the 
writer of many that were in great favour with fingers and 
bearers of a certain clafs, w ho more pioufly performed the 
rites of Comus and Bacchus than thole of Minerva and 
Apollo, he had always a crowded houfe at his benefit; 
nor did he leave this fublunary world, or the ftage, till 
3758, at eighty-eight years of age. 
LEV'EROOK,^. [lapejie. Sax.] This word is retained 
In Scotland, and denotes the lark. See Laverock. —The 
fmaller birds have their particular feafons; as, the leverook. 
Walton's Angler. —If the lufft fa’, ’twill fimoore aw the le- 
verooks. Scotch Prov. 
LEV'ERINGTON, a village near Wilbeach, thirty-feven 
miles from Cambridge. 
LEV'ERMINE, Northumberland, a hamlet belonging 
to the barony of Wark. 
LEV ERSAL, a village near Doncafter, Yorklhire. 
LEV'ERSDALE, a village, in the pariih of Irthington, 
Cumberland. 
LEV'ERSEDGE, a village in Yorklhire, between Ha¬ 
lifax and Wakefieid. 
LEV'ERTON, a village in the north riding of York¬ 
shire, eaft of Gainlbrough,. 
LEV'ERTQN, North and South, villages near Bofton, 
Lincolnlhire.—Villages on the eaft fide of Retford, Not¬ 
tinghamshire. 
LE'VESDEN, a village in Hertfordlhire, in the pariih 
and manor of Watford. 
LE'VESHAM, a village in the north riding of York¬ 
shire, fouth-vveft of Blackenmore. 
LEV'ESTON, a village of Dorfetfliire, fouth of Sher¬ 
borne. , 
LEV'ET, f. [from lever, Fr.] A blaft on the trumpet; 
probably that by which the Soldiers tire called in the 
morning: 
He that led the cavalcade 
'Wore a fowgelder’s flagellet, 
On which he blew as llrong a level. 
As well-J’ee’d lawyer on his bresiatc. Hudihras. 
LE'VET, a town of France, in the department of the 
LEV 
Cher: fix miles fouth of Bourges, and twelve fouth-fouth- 
eaft of Charoft. 
LE'VETHAM, a village in Biifiand, Cornwall, north- 
eaft of Bodmin. 
LEU'GAST, a town of Bavaria: thirty-four miles eaft- 
north-eaft of Bamberg. 
LEU'GNERSH, a village of Suftex, north of Pagham. 
LEYI, one of the twelve Hebrew patriarchs, was the 
third Ion of Jacob and Leah, born in Mefopotamia, A. M. 
2248, ante A.D. 1756. Gen. xxix. 34. After Shechem, the 
fon of Hamor, had violated Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, 
and filler to Levi and Simeon, thefe two brethren fraudu¬ 
lently engaged Shechem and his men to receive circuin- 
cifion; and, on the third day, when the pain was greateli, 
they entered the town of Shechem, Hew ali the males, re¬ 
took their filler Dinah, and pillaged the place. Gen. xxxiv. 
This aftion was very difpleafing to their father Jacob. 
Levi went down into Egypt with his father, having three 
fons, Gerlhom, Kohath, and Merari. Gen. xlvi. u. 
When Jacob blefied his fons on his death bed, he laid to 
Simeon and Levi: “ Ye are brethren, and united in doing 
mifehief; ye are inftruments of cruelty. God forbid that 
I Should be a partaker in their fecret defigns, and that my 
honour Should be concerned in their combinations; curfed 
be their anger for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was 
cruel. / will divide them in Jacob, AndJ'catter them ih Ifracl .” 
Gen. xlix. 5, 6. Accordingly, Levi was fcattered overall 
Ifrael, having no Share in "the divifion of Canaan; but 
only fome cities within the portions of other tribes. 
However, by their zeal againft idolatry, and the readi- 
nefs with which they executed the command of Mofes to 
put to death a number of the worlliippers of the golden 
calf, they obtained a mitigation of the Sentence pronounced 
againft them in the perfon of their progenitors. For they 
were admitted to the priefthood; which, though fubordi- 
nate to that of Aaron and his pofterity, entitled them to 
considerable privileges and immunities. They were thus 
appointed the keepers of the Jewish religion, and inftruc- 
tors of the people; and were entitled to a place in the ju¬ 
dicial courts of every city a^id town, and to the property 
of thirty-five cities, with all their territories, in which 
they were fupported by a fixed contribution of the tenths 
of all kinds of beafts, fruits, and grain, in Ilrael. The 
Teltament of the Twelve Patriarchs, an ancient but apo¬ 
cryphal book, fays, that the priefthood was to be Set¬ 
tled in the family of Levi ; and that the Saviour of the 
world was to be born of his tribe and that of Judah; and 
it was the opinion of many of the ancients, that the blefied 
Virgin was of the two tribes of Levi and Judah; of Ju¬ 
dah by her father, and Levi by her mother. Levi, as 
this book fays, died in Egypt, aged a hundred and thirty- 
feven years; and his fons, at their return into the land of 
Canaan, buried him in the cave of Hebron. 
LE'VI BEN GER'SHOM, a learned rabbi, born about 
the year 1290, at Bagnoli in Provence, which being Sub¬ 
ject to Spain, both French and Spaniards claim him as 
their countryman. He was descended from a family 
which had produced many learned men; and was himfelf 
educated to the medical profefiion. His celebrity, how¬ 
ever, is chiefly founded on his philofophical and theological 
writings. He was a difciple of Ariftotle ; and philofo- 
phizes in the fpirit of his mafter when difeufiing Subjects 
in facred literature-. He oppoled many of the Talmudical 
interpretations of Scripture ; and, inftead of receiving the 
accounts of the appearance of angels to Abraham, Ba¬ 
laam, &c. in a literal fenfe, he maintained that they are 
oniy narratives of vifions, dreams, &c. The gift of pro¬ 
phecy he confidered to be the effeft, not of a divine affla¬ 
tus, but of a natural genius, and bodily temperament. 
He died at Perpignan in 1370, when he was about eighty 
years of age. He was the author of Commentaries on all 
the books of the Old Teftament, of which fome are in- 
ferted in the great Bibles of Venice, and Bafil; and others 
were feparately printed, at different periods, at Pefaro, Ve¬ 
nice, and Paris. He was alfo the author of a laborious 
and curious philofophical work, entitled Millemot Hafckem > 
or the Battles of she Lordj divided into treatifes—on the 
immortality 
