LEU 
LEU 557 
LEVIT'ICUS, a canonical book of the Old Tefiament, 
fo called from its containing the laws and regulations re¬ 
lating to the priefts, levites, and facrifices. 
LEV'ITY,/! [levitas, Lat.] Inconftancy ; changeable- 
nefs.—They every day broached Come new thing ; which 
relllefs levity they did interpret to be their growing in fpi- 
ritual perfection. Hooker. 
Where wigs with wigs, with fword-knots fword-knots 
ftrive, 
Beaus banifh beaus, and coaches coaches drive, 
This erring mortals levity may call. Pope. 
Unfteadi nefs ; laxity of mind : 
I unbofom’d all my fecrets to thee; 
Not out of levity , but over-power’d 
By thy requeft. Milton's Agonijlcs. 
idle pleafure; vanity.—He never employed his omnipo¬ 
tence out of levity or oltentation, but as the necedities of 
men required. Calanty. —Trifling gaiety ; want of feriouf- 
nefs.—That fpirit of religion and ierioufnefs vanifhed, 
and a fpirit of levity and libertinilYn, infidelity and pro- 
fanenefs, ftarted up in the room of it. Atterbury. —Light- 
nels ; not heaviness ; the quality by which any body has 
lefs weight than another.—He gave the form of levity to 
that which afcended ; to that which defcended, the form 
of gravity. Raleigh. 
The fchools maintain, that there is fuch a thing as po- 
Jitive and abfolute levity, and impute to this the rife or 
emergency of bodies lighter in fpecie than the bodies 
wherein they rife. But we find by experience, that all 
bodies tend towards the earth, fome flower and foine 
fader, in all fluids, or mediums, whether water, air, &c. 
Thus, cork is only faid to be lighter than gold, becaufe, 
under equal dimenfions, the gold will fink in, aud the 
cork fwim upon, water. Yet Dr. Hook feems to main¬ 
tain fomething like a pofitive levity ; which, if we mif- 
take not, is what he means by the term levitation ; viz. a 
property of bodies direftly contrary to that of gravitation 
towards the fun. This, he thinks, he has discovered in 
the dreams of feveral comets; which, though they had a 
defcent from the nucleus of the comet towards the fun, 
yet they quickly returned, and went oppofite to the fun, 
and that to a prodigious extent. In effect, where the 
power of gravitation ceafes, it fliould feem fome fuch 
contrary force does begin ; whereof we have in dances in 
the phenomena of attraction. This is what fir Ilaac New¬ 
ton calls rite vis repellens, and appears to be one of the laws 
of nature ; without which it would be hard to account for 
rarefaction, and fome other appearances. 
LEVIZA'NO, a town of Italy, in the department of 
the Panaro : fix miles fouth-fouth-ead of Modena. 
LEUK, a town of Swiflerland, in the Valais, fituated 
about one mile from the Rhone; the principal place of a 
dixain : behind is a lofty mountain, and on the fides are 
tW'O brooks, which run into deep beds. It contains two 
churches, and a large palace of the bifhops of Sion : fix 
miles to the north are fome celebrated baths, faid to be 
beneficial in rheumatifms, difeafes of the fkin, See. It is 
twenty miles eafl of Sion. 
LEVKOPOL', a town of Ruflia, in the province of 
Tauris: eighty miles fouth of Perekop. Lat. 45. 6. N. 
Ion. 34. 24. E. 
LEU'LINGHEM, a village of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Straits of Calais, remarkable for a confer¬ 
ence held here in 1389, for an accommodation between 
France and England, which held nine days ; and another 
conference in 1401, on redoring the dowry of the queen 
of Richard II. In 1413, a third conference was held on 
the bufinefs of peace in the reign of Henry V. It is mid¬ 
way between Calais and Boulogne. 
LEUM'MIM, third fon of Dedan, and grandfon to 
Abraham and Kettirah. Gen. xxv. 3. Leunnnim might 
be the father of the Omonians, whofe country extended 
from Petra to Charax. Petra is the capital of Arabia 
Vol. XII. No. 852. 
Petraea, and Charax lies on the Euphrates. Pliny, lib. vi. 
cap. 28. * 
LE'UN, or Lein, a town of Germany, in the princi¬ 
pality of Solms-Braunfeis, fituated on the Lahn : two 
miles north of Braunfels, and four north-eafi of Weilburg. 
LEUNCLA'VIUS (John), an eminent man of letters 
of the leventeenth century, was the fon of si gentleman 
at Amelbrun in Weftphalia. He appears to have been 
brought up to the profeftion of the law, with which fei- 
ence he was intimately acquainted, as well as with litera¬ 
ture in general. He travelled into various parts of Eu¬ 
rope, and refuted a conliderable time in Turkey. He 
died at Vienna in 1693, about the fixtieth year of his age. 
From his knowledge of the Turkidi language he was ena¬ 
bled to colleft lome valuable materials for the hifiory of 
that nation, which he gave to the world in his Hiflorise 
Mnflimanicse Turcarum, and his Annales Turcici. His 
intimate knowledge of the Greek language was dilplayed 
in feveral Latin tranflations of Greek authors, viz. Xeno¬ 
phon, Zofimus, the annals of Confiantine Manafles and 
of Michael Glycas, the Greek abridgement of the fixty 
books of the Roman law, entitled Bajilics, various works 
of St. Gregory of Nazianzen, See. As a tranllator he is 
much praifed by Huet, but has been criticifed by H. Ste- 
phanus and others. 
LEVONOV'K, a town of Ruflia, in the government of 
Irkutlk, on the Lena: fifty-two miles fouth-fouth-welt of 
Kirenfk. 
LEU'POLD (James), one of the abie(l artifts in Eu¬ 
rope, during his day, in conllrufting mathematical in- 
ftruments and machines, was counfeilor and commiflary 
of mines to the king of Poland, and a member of the 
Royal Society of Berlin, and other fcientific bodies. He 
died at Leipfic in 1727, after having acquired celebrity 
by the publication of his great work, entitled, Theatrum. 
Mackinarum, in 3 vols. folio, 1724. This performance, 
though a compilation, is ufeful and much efleemed. 
LEU'PUSCH, a town of Silefia, in the principality of 
Neiile : three miles north-welt of Grotkau. 
LEU'RE, a river of France, which runs into the Loire 
a little below St. Florent le Viel, in the department of the 
Mayne and Loire. 
LEURE,/. in falconry. See Lure. 
LEV'RET (Andrew), an eminent French furgeon and 
accoucheur, was admitted a member of the Royal Aca¬ 
demy of Surgery at Paris in February 1742. He ob¬ 
tained a high and extenfive reputation in his department, 
of the art, by the improvements which he made in fome 
of the inftruments neceflaty to be employed in certain 
difficult cafes, (efpecially the forceps,) and by the prodi¬ 
gious number of pupils whom he inftrufted. He was 
employed and honoured with official appointments by all 
the female branches of the royal family. He publilhed 
feveral works, which underwent various additions and 
tranflations; as, 1. Obfervations furies Caufes et les Ac- 
cidens de plufieurs Accouchemens laborieux ; Paris, 1747. 
To the fourth edition, in 1770, were added, Obfervations 
on the lever of Roonhuyfen. 2. Obfervations fur la Cure 
radicale de plufieurs Polypes de la Matrice, de la Gorge, 
et du Nez, operee par de nouveaux inoyens ; 1749, &c. 
3. Suite des Obfervations fur les Accouchemens laborieux, 
1751. 4. Explication de plufieurs figures fur le Mecha- 
nifme de la Groflefle et de I’Accouchement; 1752. 5. 
L’Art des Accouchemens demontre par des Principes de 
Phvlique et de 1 Mechanique ; 1753, Sec. 6 . Eflai fur 
l’Abus des Regies generates, et contre les Prejuges qui 
s’oppofent aux Progres de l’Art des Accouchemens, 1766. 
Eloy Diet. Hijl. 
LEVROU'X, a town of France, in the department of 
the Indre : ten miles north of Cbateauroux, and feventeen 
ealt of Chatillon fur Indre. Lat. 46. 59. N. Ion. 1.41. E. 
LEU'SCHEIDT, a town of the grand duchy of Berg : 
nine miles eaft-fouth-eaif of Blankenberg. 
LEU'SDEN (John), an eminent philologiff, efpecially 
in the oriental languages, was born at Utrecht in 1624.. 
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