LIB 
hsrty of the prefs, properly underlined, is by no means 
infringed or violated. See Liberty of the Press. 
LI'BEL, or Libelllus* “a little book,” in the fpi- 
litual court fignifies the original declaration of any aftion 
in the civil law. 2 Edw. VI. c. 55:. The libel ufed in ec- 
clefiaftical proceedings confifts of three parts. 1. The 
major propofition, which (hows a■ juft caufe of the peti¬ 
tion. 2. The narration, or minor propofition. 3. The 
conclufion, or conclufive petition, which conjoins both 
propofitions. Blackjl. Comm. vol. iii. 
Libel, in the law of Scotland, is ufed for a criminal ac- 
cufation or indictment. 
To LI'BEL, v. n. To fpread defamation, written or 
printed: it is now commonly ufed as an aftive verb, 
without the prepofition againjl: 
Sweet fcrawls to fly about the ftreets of Rome : 
What's this but libelling cgainjl the fenate ? S/iakefpeare. 
He, like a privileg’d fpy, whom nothing can 
Discredit, libels now ’ gainfl each great man. Donne. 
To LI'BEL, v.a. To fatirife; to lampoon.—Is the 
peerage of England difhonoured when a peer fuffers for 
his treafon ? if he be libelled, or any way defamed, he has 
his fcandalum magnatum to punith the offender. Dryden. 
Sut what fo pure which envious tongues will fpare ? 
Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair. Pope. 
LIBEL'LA,/! A piece of money amongft the Romans, 
being the-tenth part of the denarius, and equal in value 
to the as. It was called libella, as being a little pound, 
becaufe equal to a pound of brafs. Its value in our mo¬ 
ney is a halfpenny farthing. See Money. 
LIBELLAT'ICI, an ancient kind of apoflates from 
Chriilianity, under the perfecution of Decius ; who, to 
prevent their being obliged to renounce the faith, and fa- 
criflce to idols in public, made application to the magif- 
trates, and abjured their faith in private ; obtaining certifi¬ 
cates of them, either by intreaty or by money 5 by which 
they were attefted to have complied with the orders of the 
emperor; and were thereby (heltered from any farther 
molefiation on account of their religion. Thefe certifi¬ 
cates were called libelli ; whence the people who obtained 
them came to be denominated, libellatici. Others, particu¬ 
larly the centuriators of Madgebourg, are of opinion, that 
the libellatici were only Inch as furnilhed the magiltrates 
with money, to fcreen them from profecution, and from 
being obliged to renounce Chriltianity. M. Tillemont 
retains fometliing of each opinion. 
LI'BELLER, f. One who writes libels; one who de¬ 
fames another in writing ; a lampooner.—Our common 
iibellers are as free from the imputation of wit as of mo¬ 
rality. Dryden. 
LABELLING, f. The ail of writing libels; the aft 
of defaming. 
LIB'ELLOUS, adj. Defamatory.—It was the molt ma¬ 
licious furmife that had ever been brewed, howfoever 
countenanced by a libellous pamphlet. Wotton. 
LIBEL'LULA,y. The DRAGON-fly ; a genus of neu- 
ropterous infeCts. Generic characters—Jaws always more 
than two in number, and fitted for gratifying that vora¬ 
city by which the libellulas are diftinguilhed: antennas 
Ihorter than the thorax; wings always extended, and in 
fome meafure feveral inches from tip to tip. The male 
is diftinguilhed by a kind of hooked forceps, by which 
the extremity of the tail is terminated. 
The dragon-flies, fometimes improperly called horfe- 
Itingers, are univerfally known, from their large fize, 
and the frequency with which they every-where appear. 
The organs of generation are differently fituated in the 
male and female of this tribe; in the former, they are 
placed upon the under-fide of that part of the abdomen 
which lies between the inferior wings; while, in the lat¬ 
ter, they are found at the tip or end of the abdomen. The 
feafon of love in all infeCts, from the brevity of their lives, 
is neceifarily ftiort, but it is bufily employed. It is only 
the iarge infects, fuch as the iibelluiae, that are frequently 
LIB - 575 
feen celebrating the rites of Venus; and among them the 
operation is performed with a frequency and diipatch that 
feems perfectly to correfpond with the tranfient nature of 
their exiltence, and the numerous-race they tranfmit to 
pofterity. The addrefles of the libellula to his female feem 
carried on in a rough and intrepid, but efficacious, man¬ 
ner. He hovers about on the wing, till the o'pjeCl of his 
amours makes her appearance ; he then watches an oppor¬ 
tunity of feizing he* by the head with thofe pincers with 
which his tail is armed. It is thus that the ravilher tra¬ 
vels through the air, till the female, yielding to fuperior 
Ilrength, perhaps to inclination, forms her body into a cir¬ 
cle, that terminates at the genitals of the male, and thus 
accomplithes the great purpofe of nature. It is while 
thefe kind of rapes are perpetrating, that the libellulas 
are feen coupled in the air, exhibiting the form of a ring. 
Barbut, p. 205. 
This infeCt exhibits an inftance fcarcely lefs finking 
than the butterfly of that ftrange diftimilitude in point of 
form under which one and the fame animal is deitined to 
appear in the different periods of its exiitence. Perhaps 
few perfons not particularly converfant in the hifrory of 
infeCts would imagine that thefe highly-brilliant and lively 
animals, which may be feen flying with fuch ilrength and 
rapidity round the meadows, and purfuing the fmaller 
infeCts with the velocity of a hawk, had once been inha¬ 
bitants of the water, and that they had refided for a very 
long fpace of time in that element before they aflumed 
their flying form. However, the female, when pregnant,, 
retires to the fide of a ditch or pond, when, by the af- 
liftance of a flick or reed, ihe creeps, or lowers herfelf 
down, by moving backwards, till the tip of the tail is im- 
merged about half an inch in the water; fheis then feized 
with a kind of trembling or (baking of the body, during 
which effort the depofits a fingle egg in the water; af¬ 
terwards fhe imsnerges her tail a fecond and a third time, 
when the fame operations are performed. The tail is- 
withdrawn from the water by contracting its annuli; and, 
by the prefiure of thefe upon each other, the egg is gra¬ 
dually forced from the ovary to the extremity of the tail, 
from whence it is ultimately feparated, by lhaking that 
part in the water. The eggs thus protruded by the libel¬ 
lulas are of a white colour and oblong form, refembling 
thofe produced by the Mufca vomitoria, or common blow¬ 
fly. The caterpillar, which iifues from thefe eggs, at fir ft: 
feeds on fmall aquatic infeCts: gradually acquiring more 
voracity and bokinefs in the purfuit, in proportion as its 
ftrength increafes, at length it becomes fo iniatiable, that 
it is laid to devour even thofe of its own kind. The form 
and colour of thefe worms are extremely difgufting: be¬ 
neath the head is placed an inllrnment excellently adapted 
for feizing and holding their prey: it is furnilhed with 
a forceps at the end, and can be advanced or drawn back 
with all the agility of the human hand. 
The caterpillar remains in the fame ftate for nearly 
twelve months before it has attained to its full fize; when 
the period of transformation has arrived, the worm repairs 
to the margin of its pond in quell of a convenient place 
of abode during the feafon of its ina&ion. It there at¬ 
taches itfelf to a plant or piece of dry wood ; and the Ikin, 
which has gradually become parched and brittle, at lalfc 
fplits oppolite to the upper part of the thorax. Through 
this aperture the winged infect quickly puflies its way 3 
and, being thus extricated from confinement, begins to 
expand its wings, to flutter, and finally to launch into 
the air, with that gracefulnefs and eafe peculiar to this 
majeftic tribe. The wings, however, at firlt, are very fhort, 
tender, and contracted, all the ramifications or fibres hav¬ 
ing been comprefied within the fmall compafs of the ob¬ 
long feales on the back of the larva, or rather pupa ; but 
in the fpace of about half an hour they are fully expand¬ 
ed, and have acquired the folidity and ftrength neceflary 
for flight. This curious procefs of the evolution or birth 
of the libell ula generally takes.place in the morning, and 
during a clear lunftiine. The remaining part of the ani¬ 
mal's life is but fliort in, companion with that which it 
palled 
