patriotism, an extravagant respect for rank, and exclusive devotion to any particular church.
Lessing’s theological opinions exposed him to much petty persecution, and he was in almost constant straits for money. Nothing, however, broke his manly and generous spirit. To the end he was always ready to help those who appealed to him for aid, and he devoted himself with growing ardour to the search for truth. He formed many new plans of work, but in the course of 1780 it became evident to his friends that he would not be able much longer to continue his labours. His health had been undermined by excessive work and anxiety, and after a short illness he died at Brunswick on the 15th of February 1781. “We lose much in him,” wrote Goethe after Lessing’s death, “more than we think.” It may be questioned whether there is any other writer to whom the Germans owe a deeper debt of gratitude. He was succeeded by poets and philosophers who gave Germany for a time the first place in the intellectual life of the world, and it was Lessing, as they themselves acknowledged, who prepared the way for their achievements. Without attaching himself to any particular system of philosophical doctrine, he fought error incessantly, and in regard to art, poetry and the drama and religion, suggested ideas which kindled the enthusiasm of aspiring minds, and stimulated their highest energies.
Bibliography.—The first edition of Lessing’s collected works, edited by his brother Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740–1812), J. J. Eschenburg and F. Nicolai, appeared in 26 vols. between 1791 and 1794, as a continuation of the Vermischte Schriften, edited by Lessing himself in 4 vols. (1771–1785); the Sämtliche Schriften, edited by Karl Lachmann, were published in 13 vols. (1825–1828), this edition being subsequently re-edited by W. von Maltzahn (1853–1857) and by F. Muncker (21 vols., 1886 ff.), the last mentioned being the standard edition of Lessing’s works. Other editions are Lessings Werke, published by Hempel, under the editorship of various scholars (23 vols., 1868–1877); an illustrated edition published by Grote in 8 vols. (1875, new ed., 1882); Lessings Werke, edited by R. Boxberger and H. Blümner, in Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vols. 58-71 (1883–1890). There are also many popular editions. Lessing’s correspondence is included in the Lachmann editions and in that of Hempel (edited by C. C. Redlich, 1879; Nachträge und Berichtigungen, 1886); his correspondence with his wife was published as early as 1789 (2 vols., new edition by A. Schöne, 1885). The chief biographies of Lessing are by K. G. Lessing (his brother), (1793–1795, a reprint in Reclam’s Universalbibliothek); by J. F. Schink (1825); T. W. Danzel and G. E. Guhrauer (1850–1853, 2nd ed. by W. von Maltzahn and R. Boxberger, 2 vols., 1880–1881); A. Stahr (2 vols., 1859, 9th ed., 1887); J. Sime, Lessing, his Life and Works (2 vols., 1877); H. Zimmern, Lessing’s Life and Works (1878); H. Düntzer, Lessings Leben (1882); E. Schmidt, Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften (2 vols., 1884–1892, 3rd ed., 1910)—this is the most complete biography; T. W. Rolleston, Lessing (in “Great Writers,” 1889); K. Borinski, Lessing (2 vols., 1900). Cf. also C. Hebler, Lessing-Studien (1862); A. Lehmann, Forschungen über Lessings Sprache (1875); W. Cosack, Materialien zu Lessings Hamburgischer Dramaturgie (1876, 2nd ed., 1891); H. Blümner, Lessings Laokoon (1876, 2nd ed., 1880); H. Blümner, Laokoon-Studien (2 vols., 1881–1882); K. Fischer, Lessing als Reformator der deutschen Literatur dargestellt (2 vols., 1881, 2nd ed., 1888); B. A. Wagner, Lessing-Forschungen (1881); J. W. Braun, Lessing im Urteile seiner Zeitgenossen (2 vols., 1884); P. Albrecht, Lessings Plagiate (6 vols., 1890 ff.); K. Werder, Vorlesungen über Lessings Nathan (1892); G. Kettner, Lessings Dramen im Lichte ihrer und unsrer Zeit (1904). Translations of Lessing’s Dramatic Works (2 vols., 1878), edited by E. Bell, and of Laokoon, Dramatic Notes and the Representation of Death by the Ancients, by E. C. Beasley and H. Zimmern (1 vol., 1879), will be found in Bohn’s “Standard Library.” (J. Si.; J. G. R.)
LESSON (through Fr. leçon from Lat. lectio, reading; legere,
to read), properly a certain portion of a book appointed to be
read aloud, or learnt for repetition, hence anything learnt or
studied, a course of instruction or study. A specific meaning
of the word is that of a portion of Scripture or other religious
writings appointed to be read at divine service, in accordance
with a table known as a “lectionary.” In the Church of England
the lectionary is so ordered that most of the Old Testament
is read through during the year as the First Lesson at Morning
and Evening Prayer, and as the Second Lesson the whole of the
New Testament, except Revelation, of which only portions are
read. (See Lection and Lectionary.)
LESTE, a desert wind, similar to the Leveche (q.v.), observed in Madeira. It blows from an easterly direction in autumn, winter and spring, rarely in summer, and is of intense dryness, sometimes reducing the relative humidity at Funchal to below 20%. The Leste is commonly accompanied by clouds of fine red sand.
L’ESTRANGE, SIR ROGER (1616–1704), English pamphleteer on the royalist and court side during the Restoration epoch, but principally remarkable as the first English man of letters of any distinction who made journalism a profession, was born at Hunstanton in Norfolk on the 17th of December 1616. In 1644, during the civil war, he headed a conspiracy to seize the town of Lynn for the king, under circumstances which led to his being condemned to death as a spy. The sentence, however, was not executed, and after four years’ imprisonment in Newgate he escaped to the Continent. He was excluded from the Act of Indemnity, but in 1653 was pardoned by Cromwell upon his personal solicitation, and lived quietly until the Restoration, when after some delay his services and sufferings were acknowledged by his appointment as licenser of the press. This office was administered by him in the spirit which might be expected from a zealous cavalier. He made himself notorious, not merely by the severity of his literary censorship, but by his vigilance in the suppression of clandestine printing. In 1663 (see Newspapers) he commenced the publication of the Public Intelligencer and the News, from which eventually developed the famous official paper the London Gazette in 1665. In 1679 he again became prominent with the Observator, a journal specially designed to vindicate the court from the charge of a secret inclination to popery. He discredited the Popish Plot, and the suspicion he thus incurred was increased by the conversion of his daughter to Roman Catholicism, but there seems no reason to question the sincerity of his own attachment to the Church of England. In 1687 he gave a further proof of independence by discontinuing the Observator from his unwillingness to advocate James II.’s Edict of Toleration, although he had previously gone all lengths in support of the measures of the court. The Revolution cost him his office as licenser, and the remainder of his life was spent in obscurity. He died in 1704. It is to L’Estrange’s credit that among the agitations of a busy political life he should have found time for much purely literary work as a translator of Josephus, Cicero, Seneca, Quevedo and other standard authors.
LESUEUR, DANIEL, the pseudonym of Jeanne Lapanze, née Loiseau (1860– ), French poet and novelist, who was born in Paris in 1860. She published a volume of poems, Fleurs d’avril (1882), which was crowned by the Academy. She also wrote some powerful novels dealing with contemporary life: Le Mariage de Gabrielle (1882); Un Mystérieux Amour (1892), with a series of philosophical sonnets; L’Amant de Geneviève (1883); Marcelle (1885); Une Vie tragique (1890); Justice de femme (1893); Comédienne Haine d’amour (1894); Honneur d’une femme (1901); La Force du passé (1905). Her poems were collected in 1895. She published in 1905 a book on the economic status of women, L’Évolution féminine; and in 1891–1893 a translation (2 vols.) of the works of Lord Byron, which was awarded a prize by the Academy. Her Masque d’amour, a five-act play based on her novel (1904) of the same name, was produced at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in 1905. She received the ribbon of the Legion of Honour in 1900, and the prix Vitet from the French Academy in 1905. She married in 1904 Henry Lapanze (b. 1867), a well-known writer on art.
LE SUEUR, EUSTACHE (1617–1655), one of the founders of the French Academy of painting, was born on the 19th of November 1617 at Paris, where he passed his whole life, and where he died on the 30th of April 1655. His early death and retired habits have combined to give an air of romance to his simple history, which has been decorated with as many fables as that of Claude. We are told that, persecuted by Le Brun, who was jealous of his ability, he became the intimate friend and correspondent of Poussin, and it is added that, broken-hearted at the death of his wife, Le Sueur retired to the monastery of the Chartreux and died in the arms of the prior. All this, however, is pure fiction. The facts of Le Sueur’s life are these. He was
