Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/541

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LESUEUR 465 LETTOW-VORBECK Wise." Of his prose works may be named, "Fables"; "Literary Letters"; "Dramaturgie" (which first made Shake- GOTTHOLD LBSSING speare really known to the Germans), and "Laocoon." He died in 1781. LESUEUR, EUSTACHE (luh-sur'), a French painter; born in 1617. He mar- ried in 1644, and was compelled for a living to execute vignettes and frontis- pieces for books. His great work was the series of paintings which he executed for the Carthusian monastery in Paris in 1645-1648, delineating in 22 pictures the principal scenes in the life of St. Bruno. In 1650 he painted for the cor- poration of goldsmiths the "Preaching of the Apostle Paul at Ephesus." All of these are large paintings, and are now in the Louvre. He died in 1655. LETHBRIDGE, a city in Alberta, Canada, situated on the Canadian Pacific railroad about 700 miles southwest of Winnipeg. The chief industries located in the city are the iron foundries and machine shops. Coal is found nearby, there being five large mines employing about 2000 persons and producing 4000 tons daily. Population, about 15,000. LETHE (le'the), in Greek mythology, the stream of forgetfulness in the lower world, from which souls drank before passing into the Elysian Fields, that they might lose all recollection of earthly sorrows. LETTER, a character used in print- ing. Type either of metal or wood. Used collectively to represent type, as "a case of letter," "a font of letter." Fat letter is type with body and face broad in proportion to its height. Lean letter is type thin or narrow in propor- tion to its height. Body letter is type in which the main portion of a book or paper is printed. Body letter is known by different names, according to the size of the type; the sizes in most common use being: Pearl, Agate, Nonpareil, Minion, Brevier, Bourgeois, Long Primer, Small Pica, and Pica. These sizes are also known in terms of the point sys- tem, another standard of type measure- ment. Thus pica is now twelve point, nonpareil is six point, etc. A letter is, in its nature, altogether familiar; this term may be used for whatever is written by one friend to an- other in domestic life, or for the public documents of this description which have emanated from the pen of writers, as the letters of Madame de Sevigne, the let- ters of Pope or of Swift; and even those which were written by the ancients, as the letters of Cicero, Pliny, and Seneca; but in strict propriety the latter are epistles — a term more adapted to what- ever has received the sanction of ages; and by the same rule, likewise, whatever is peculiarly solemn in its contents has acquired the same epithet, as the epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, St. Jude. Letters and literature signify knowledge derived through the medium of written letters or books, that is, in- formation; learning is confined to that which is communicated, that is, scholas- tic knowledge. Such an expression as men of letters, or the republic of letters, comprehends all who devote themselves to the cultivation of their minds. LETTER OF MARQUE, the commis- sion authorizing a privateer to make war upon, or seize the property of, another nation. Letters of marque were abol- ished among European nations by the treaty of Paris in 1856. LETTOW-VORBECK, GENERAL VON, a German military officer. He was, befor-e the World War, commander of the German forces in the Kameroons, East Africa, and was also head of the second sea battalion. During the World War, though barred from communi- cation with Germany, he kept in the field against the British for four years. When his forces were driven from Ger- man East Africa he held his ground in Mozambique, and held his small army intact in Rhodesia at the time of the armistice.