completion of the "Mécanique Analytique" Lagrange gave his mind an interval of complete rest from mathematical studies; indeed it is said that he did not even open the book itself until two years after its publication. During that interval he occupied himself with the study of music, chemistry, literature, and philosophy. In 1790 he took part in the establishment of the "metrical system" of weights and measures. In 1791 he was appointed one of the three managers of the mint. In 1792 he married Mademoiselle Lemonnier, whose charms of person and mind, and amiability of character, are spoken of in the highest terms by his biographers. In 1793 he narrowly escaped (through the influence of Guyton-Morveau with the committee of public safety) from banishment, in virtue of a decree whereby all foreigners were ordered to quit France; and during the Reign of Terror it is said that his life was for a time in imminent danger, owing to that jealousy of superiority of any kind to which Lavoisier fell a sacrifice. On the re-establishment of order he was appointed a professor in the école normale, and afterwards in the polytechnic school. In 1797 he published a work scarcely less famous than his "Mécanique Analytique"—the "Théorie des Fonctions Analytiques." In this work, and in the "Leçons sur le calcul des Fonctions," by which it was followed a few years afterwards, the principles of the differential calculus are set forth by a method distinct both from Newton's method of limits, and Leibnitz's method of infinitesimals. It may be held that those three methods are each of them necessary to the perfection of the science; that of Newton being the most satisfactory for the proof of its principles; that of Leibnitz the most convenient and efficient for its more general application; and that of Lagrange the most powerful for its more recondite and abstruse applications. In 1798 appeared his work on the solution of numerical equations. When Piedmont in 1799-1800 was for a time united to the French republic, one of the first acts of the government was to send their commissioner at Turin to the venerable father of Lagrange, then ninety years of age, and still active and vivacious, with an address expressive of their respect and interest, and their congratulations upon the distinction which his son had acquired. The old man survived for five years longer, but died without having seen his son since the date of the departure of the latter for Berlin in 1766. Lagrange was created by Napoleon a grand officer of the legion of honour, and a member of the imperial senate. Having improved the method of Gauss for the resolution of numerical equations, he embodied the results in the second edition of his work on that subject in 1808. The first volume of the second edition of the "Mécanique Analytique" appeared in 1811; the second edition of the "Théorie des Fonctions Analytiques" in 1813; but he did not live to complete the revision of the second volume of the "Mécanique Analytique;" it was edited by Prong, Garnier, and Binet, and appeared in 1815. The most remarkable result of the mechanical investigations of Lagrange has not been mentioned in its chronological order; it was the law, demonstrated by him in 1776, of the periodicity of the variations of the greater axes of the planetary orbits, by which we are assured of the permanence and stability of the solar system; and it is perhaps the most important consequence ever deduced from the law of gravitation.—W. J. M. R.
LAGUNA or LACUNA, Andres, Count of, a Spanish medical and classical writer, was born in 1499. He studied at Salamanca and Paris, and resided for some time in the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. He published Latin translations from Aristotle and Lucian. He died in Spain in 1560.—B. H. C.
LA HARPE, Jean-François de, a French writer, was born at Paris the 20th of November, 1739, of parents originally from the Vaudois country. His father died in 1749, leaving the boy destitute. He was benevolently taken care of by the sisters of charity of the parish of St. André, and was admitted a bursar at the college of Harcourt, where he showed remarkable abilities. His first publication was a volume of Heroics, a feeble production, meriting notice chiefly for the introductory essay on Heroics. In 1763 he brought out "Warwick," a tragedy, which had great success. But neither that nor his succeeding plays enriched him, and for a time he was dependent on the bounty of Voltaire at Ferney. In 1768 he was again at Paris, writing for the Mercure. His play of "Melanie," directed against forced religious vows, being prohibited, was privately circulated and greedily read. It carried La Harpe into the Academy. The severity of his criticisms, however, made him a host of enemies, who were not sparing in their epigrams, in consequence of which he withdrew from the Mercure, and went back to the drama. At the foundation of the Lycée in 1786, La Harpe became professor of literature there, and the "Cours de Litterature," containing the substance of his lectures, is the work by which he is now most known. Though favourable to the Revolution, he was arrested in 1794; and, while in prison, the study of the Bible converted him from a Voltairian philosopher to a devout catholic. He died on the 11th of February, 1803. The list of his works, with brief notices, occupies ten pages of La France Litteraire, by Querard.—R. H.
LAHIRE, Etienne de Vignolles, was born in Gascony about 1390, and died in 1443. He was a rough and unscrupulous but gallant warrior, and fought with distinction against the English armies. Charles VII. appreciated him at exactly his proper worth, using him as occasion required, but never trusting him with high command.—W. J. P.
LA HIRE, Laurent de, was the son of Etienne La Hire, and was born at Paris in 1606. His father set him to study the works of Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, and he studied also some time with Lallemand in Paris. He delighted in large historical or religious pieces, adopting as much as possible the style of Primaticcio. He executed some great altar-pieces, especially for the capuchins at Paris and at Rouen. He painted the so-called "May Pictures" of the jewellers of Paris, presented in the years 1635 and 1637 to the choir of Nôtre Dame; the first representing the healing effects of the shadow of St. Peter, and the other the conversion of St. Paul. About this time he also executed three subjects from classical mythology for the Cardinal Richelieu. De La Hire's reputation was now great, and he was one of the original twelve professors of the Academy of Painting founded by Louis XIV. in 1648. He painted also portraits and landscapes, and he executed some etchings. He took but little exercise, and died comparatively young of dropsy, December 29, 1656. He was one of the principal painters of his century, and his best works are executed in a grand academic style, but without any remarkable qualities; the higher excellencies of his art being subordinate to the technical manipulation.—(Mémoires inédits sur les Artistes Français.)—R. N. W.
LA HIRE, Philippe de, a French mathematician, son of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1640, and died there on the 21st of April, 1719. He was instructed by his father in painting, and the science of dialling. From 1660 till 1664 he travelled in Italy, with a view to the study of art. Having published some geometrical works of merit, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1678. From 1680 till 1682 he was employed along with Picard in a survey of the coast of France. He was for many years professor of mathematics and of architecture in the Royal college of France, and published several mathematical and mechanical treatises of great merit. He was one of the editors of the collection called Veteres Mathematici, published in 1693.—W. J. M. R.
LA HUERTA, V. G. de. See Huerta.
LAINÉ, Joseph Henri Joachim, Vicomte, a French statesman, born at Bordeaux, 11th November, 1767; died at Paris, 17th December, 1835. In 1813 he was a member of the commission appointed to take cognizance of the documents relating to negotiations with the allies. In 1814 he was president of the chamber of deputies, and when Napoleon returned to Paris from Elba, he made a protest in the name of the chamber against all future acts of the imperial government. After Waterloo he was again president of the chamber, and in 1816 was minister of the interior. In 1823 he was made a peer of France, and was the staunch advocate of constitutional freedom. Earnest, eloquent, generous, and self-denying, he received from Louis XVIII. a noble compliment—"I never dared to ask my minister to do an injustice, for I knew he had the soul of a Spartan."—P. E. D.
LAINEZ, James. See Leynez.
LAING, Alexander Gordon, an African traveller, was the son of a classical teacher in Edinburgh, and was born in 1793. He was educated at the university of his native city, and in 1808 took charge of the commercial department of his father's academy. In 1809, when fears were entertained of a French invasion, young Laing joined a corps of volunteers, and in the following year received an ensign's commission in the prince of Wales' volunteers. In 1811 he sailed for Barbadoes to join his maternal uncle, Colonel Gordon; and while there was presented with a commission in the York light infantry. He served for some time in the West Indies, at Honduras and at Sierra Leone,
