according to Vitruvius (v. 10), “from which a brazen shield is suspended by chains, capable of being so lowered and raised as to regulate the temperature.” The walls of the laconicum were plastered with marble stucco and polished, and the conical roof covered with plaster and painted blue with gold stars. Sometimes, as in the old baths at Pompeii, the laconicum was provided in an apse at one end of the caldarium, but as a rule it was a separate room raised to a higher temperature and had no bath in it. In addition to the hypocaust under the floor the wall was lined with flue tiles. The largest laconicum, about 75 ft. in diameter, was that built by Agrippa in his thermae on the south side of the Pantheon, and is referred to by Cassius (liii. 23), who states that, in addition to other works, “he constructed the hot bath chamber which he called the Laconicum Gymnasium.” All traces of this building are lost; but in the additions made to the thermae of Agrippa by Septimius Severus another laconicum was built farther south, portions of which still exist in the so-called Arco di Giambella.
LACORDAIRE, JEAN BAPTISTE HENRI (1802–1861), French
ecclesiastic and orator, was born at Recey-sur-Ource, Côte d’Or,
on the 12th of March 1802. He was the second of a family of
four, the eldest of whom, Jean Théodore (1801–1870), travelled
a great deal in his youth, and was afterwards professor of comparative
anatomy at Liége. For several years Lacordaire studied
at Dijon, showing a marked talent for rhetoric; this led him
to the pursuit of law, and in the local debates of the advocates
he attained a high celebrity. At Paris he thought of going on
the stage, but was induced to finish his legal training and began
to practise as an advocate (1817–1824). Meanwhile Lamennais
had published his Essai sur l’Indifférence,—a passionate plea
for Christianity and in particular for Roman Catholicism as
necessary for the social progress of mankind. Lacordaire read,
and his ardent and believing nature, weary of the theological
negations of the Encyclopaedists, was convinced. In 1823
he became a theological student at the seminary of Saint
Sulpice; four years later he was ordained and became almoner
of the college Henri IV. He was called from it to co-operate
with Lamennais in the editorship of L’Avenir, a journal established
to advocate the union of the democratic principle with
ultramontanism. Lacordaire strove to show that Catholicism
was not bound up with the idea of dynasty, and definitely allied
it with a well-defined liberty, equality and fraternity. But the
new propagandism was denounced from Rome in an encyclical.
In the meantime Lacordaire and Montalembert, believing that,
under the charter of 1830, they were entitled to liberty of
instruction, opened an independent free school. It was closed in
two days, and the teachers fined before the court of peers.
These reverses Lacordaire accepted with quiet dignity; but
they brought his relationship with Lamennais to a close. He now
began the course of Christian conférences at the Collége Stanislas,
which attracted the art and intellect of Paris; thence he went
to Nôtre Dame, and for two years his sermons were the delight
of the capital. His presence was dignified, his voice capable of
indefinite modulation, and his gestures animated and attractive.
He still preached the gospel of the people’s sovereignty in civil
life and the pope’s supremacy in religion, but brought to his
propagandism the full resources of a mind familiar with philosophy,
history and literature, and indeed led the reaction against
Voltairean scepticism. He was asked to edit the Univers, and
to take a chair in the university of Louvain, but he declined both
appointments, and in 1838 set out for Rome, revolving a great
scheme for christianizing France by restoring the old order of
St Dominic. At Rome he donned the habit of the preaching
friar and joined the monastery of Minerva. His Mémoire pour
le rétablissement en France de l’ordre des frères prêcheurs was then
prepared and dedicated to his country; at the same time he
collected the materials for the life of St Dominic. When he
returned to France in 1841 he resumed his preaching at Nôtre
Dame, but he had small success in re-establishing the order of
which he ever afterwards called himself monk. His funeral
orations are the most notable in their kind of any delivered
during his time, those devoted to Marshal Drouet and Daniel
O’Connell being especially marked by point and clearness. He
next thought that his presence in the National Assembly would
be of use to his cause; but being rebuked by his ecclesiastical
superiors for declaring himself a republican, he resigned his seat
ten days after his election. In 1850 he went back to Rome and
was made provincial of the order, and for four years laboured
to make the Dominicans a religious power. In 1854 he retired
to Sorrèze to become director of a private lyceum, and remained
there until he died on the 22nd of November 1861. He had been
elected to the Academy in the preceding year.
The best edition of Lacordaire’s works is the Œuvres complètes (6 vols., Paris, 1872–1873), published by C. Poussielgue, which contains, besides the Conférences, the exquisitely written, but uncritical, Vie de Saint Dominique and the beautiful Lettres à un jeune homme sur la vie chrétienne. For a complete list of his published correspondence see L. Petit de Julleville’s Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française, vii. 598.
The authoritative biography is by Ch. Foisset (2 vols., Paris, 1870). The religious aspect of his character is best shown in Père B. Chocarne’s Vie du Père Lacordaire (2 vols., Paris, 1866—English translation by A. Th. Drane, London, 1868); see also Count C. F. R. de Montalembert’s Un Moine au XIX ème siècle (Paris, 1862—English translation by F. Aylward, London, 1867). There are lives by Mrs H. L. Lear (London, 1882); by A. Ricard (1 vol. of L’École menaisienne, Paris, 1883); by Comte O. d’Haussonville (1 vol., Les Grands écrivains Français series, Paris, 1897); by Gabriel Ledos (Paris, 1901); by Dora Greenwell (1867); and by the duc de Broglie (Paris, 1889). The Correspondance inédite du Père Lacordaire, edited by H. Villard (Paris, 1870), may also be consulted. See also Saint-Beuve in Causeries de Lundi. Several of Lacordaire’s Conférences have been translated into English, among these being, Jesus Christ (1869); God (1870); God and Man (1872); Life (1875). For a theological study of the Conférences de Nôtre Dame, see an article by Bishop J. C. Hedley in Dublin Review (October 1870).
LACQUER, or Lacker, a general term for coloured and frequently opaque varnishes applied to certain metallic objects and to wood. The term is derived from the resin lac, which substance is the basis of lacquers properly so called. Technically,
among Western nations, lacquering is restricted to the coating of polished metals or metallic surfaces, such as brass, pewter and tin, with prepared varnishes which will give them a golden,
bronze-like or other lustre as desired. Throughout the East Indies the lacquering of wooden surfaces is universally practised, large articles of household furniture, as well as small boxes, trays, toys and papier-mâché objects, being decorated with bright-coloured and variegated lacquer. The lacquer used in the East is, in general, variously coloured sealing-wax, applied, smoothed and polished in a heated condition; and by various devices intricate marbled, streaked and mottled designs are produced. Quite distinct from these, and from all other forms of lacquer, is the lacquer work of Japan, for which see Japan, § Art.
LACRETELLE, PIERRE LOUIS DE (1751–1824), French
politician and writer, was born at Metz on the 9th of October
1751. He practised as a barrister in Paris; and under the
Revolution was elected as a député suppléant in the Constituent
Assembly, and later as deputy in the Legislative Assembly.
He belonged to the moderate party known as the “Feuillants,”
but after the 10th of August 1792 he ceased to take part in
public life. In 1803 he became a member of the Institute,
taking the place of La Harpe. Under the Restoration he was
one of the chief editors of the Minerve française; he wrote also
an essay, Sur le 18 Brumaire (1799), some Fragments politiques
et littéraires (1817), and a treatise Des partis politiques et des
factions de la prétendue aristocratie d’aujourd’hui (1819).
His younger brother, Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle, called Lacretelle le jeune (1766–1855), historian and journalist, was also born at Metz on the 3rd of September 1766. He was called to Paris by his brother in 1787, and during the Revolution belonged, like him, to the party of the Feuillants. He was for some time secretary to the duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, the celebrated philanthropist, and afterwards joined the staff of the Journal de Paris, then managed by Suard, and where he had as colleagues André Chénier and Antoine Roucher. He made no attempt to hide his monarchist sympathies, and this, together with the way in which he reported the trial and death of Louis XVI., brought him in peril of his life; to avoid this
