nation in April, 1826, by the correctional tribunal, for supposed disobedience to the laws. He foresaw, he predicted, and he did not regret the expulsion of the elder Bourbon dynasty. But the Orleans dynasty excited in him a still fiercer distaste. The blood staining the Paris streets had scarcely dried, when Lamennais hastened to assert the absolute independence of the catholic church, and to advocate its formal separation from the state. Energetic were his pleadings for other extreme reforms. The democratic tendency which his ultramontanism was now assuming, excited the anger and hatred of many among the French prelates. Loud were the complaints and protestations which the pope heard from numerous quarters. Accompanied by Lacordaire and Montalembert, at that time his devoted disciples, Lamennais went to Rome to justify himself. He could obtain no fair opportunity of doing so. But while on his way back to France he received the encyclical letter issued by Pope Gregory XVI. on the 15th August, 1832, in which the theories of Lamennais were anathematized. Lamennais agreed to discontinue the periodical which had for some time been his weapon of warfare, and he went through the form of a recantation. How much this was a mere form was proved by the appearance in 1834 of "The Words of a Believer," which had a resonance throughout the earth at which popes and kings might well turn pale. Many other works, such as "The Book of the People," demonstrated that Lamennais now viewed himself as the champion of the democracy, though in a sense altogether peculiar and independent. For a pamphlet entitled "The Country and the Government" he was in 1840 condemned to a fine of two thousand francs and a year's imprisonment. This martyrdom Lamennais bore with his accustomed heroism. From the July revolution Lamennais expected much, and much was he disappointed. From the February revolution he expected more, and was still more disappointed. Still, perhaps, of all who took part in that revolution he was the sincerest, the most unselfish; was deepest moved by the woes and wounds of the nation. He was first a member of the constituent, then of the legislative assembly. Not having the physical qualities of the orator, he was contented with giving a silent vote for the measures dearest to his heart. But what he could not do as an orator, he strove hard to achieve as a journalist. The erection, however, of the autocracy by Louis Napoleon put an end to his journalistic activity, and plunged him in a despondency akin to despair. His last literary labour was the translation of Dante's great poem. On his deathbed some well-meaning but ill-advised Romanist zealots endeavoured to obtain from him a retractation of what they regarded as his errors, and his reconciliation with the catholic church. But he would not listen to their entreaties. He ordered that he was to be interred among the poor, and like one of the poor; that nothing was to be put on his tomb, not even a simple stone; that his body was to be carried straight to the cemetery, and that no service was to be performed in a church. His death was ascribed to inflammation of the chest, but no doubt it was hastened by moral exhaustion, by the tragic sense of disenchantment. A prodigious multitude followed the funeral, but only eight persons were allowed to enter the cemetery. Lamennais was buried in silence, and in accordance with his wish nothing marks the spot where he lies. He was a most voluminous writer. All his works are not of a political or polemical character; some are devotional, others philosophical. His translations of the Imitation of Christ and of the Gospels, are both esteemed. His "Sketch of a Philosophy," in four volumes, may be accepted as the maturest utterance of his convictions. Its chief interest is its indication of the growth of the author's mind. Since his death portions of his correspondence, along with a few previously unpublished productions, have appeared. Perhaps, as a writer of prose, not equalled by any one since Rousseau, Lamennais as a thinker is neither opulent nor profound, nor suggestive, nor original. He is a puissant, a dauntless athlete, and the moment he abandons his militant attitude he ceases to attract us. Hammering down dogmas with battle-mace, he was, perhaps, too much the slave of his own. His fierce logic, obeying the law of its inexorable necessities, prevented him from seeing all the truth. Intense, incorruptible, he wanted breadth and geniality.—W. M—l.
LAMETH, Charles Malo François, Comte de, brother of Theodore Lameth, was born at Paris in 1757. He served with his brothers under Rochambeau in the American war of independence. He took an active part on the democratic side in the great French revolution, but was obliged to fly to Hamburg during its excesses. He again figured in the revolution of July, 1830, and died in 1832.—W. J. P.
LAMETH, Theodore, Comte de, was born at Paris in 1756, and during his youth served gallantly both in the army and navy. He laboured and struggled for rational freedom during the Revolution, and accordingly had to fly, taking shelter in Switzerland. After the restoration of the Bourbons he lived in perfect retirement, devoting his time and money to works of beneficence. He died in 1829.—W. J. P.
LAMETHERIE, Jean Claude de, a French chemist and writer, born in 1743. Many of his opinions were of the most whimsical description; he taught, for instance, that all organized beings were formed by crystallization; that the differences in the forms of animals were occasioned by their particular habits of life; and that all organized beings originated from one primitive fluid. He died in 1817.—W. B—d.
LAMI or LAMY, Bernard, a celebrated priest of the Oratoire, and philosopher, born at Mans of a noble family in 1640. He studied at Mans, Paris, and Saumur, and afterwards professed rhetoric, grammar, and philosophy in various colleges of his congregation. While at Angers he brought himself into publicity by his conduct in regard to the Descartes controversies. Lami and the Oratorians generally were the partisans of Descartes, while several of the universities and the pope had declared against him. In the face of all this, Lami publicly maintained the Cartesian philosophy in 1674, at the college where he was professor. This daring act involved him in a prosecution, and the whole city was for some time in an uproar. Lami was condemned, deprived of his office, and sent to Grenoble, but not without leaving a protest behind him. The bishop of Grenoble, Cardinal Le Camus, was his friend, and obtained for him the post of professor of philosophy at the college of that city. Lami was for some time discreetly silent, or said nothing about Aristotle and the Thomists on the one hand, and the doctrines of Descartes on the other. In 1675 he published "The Art of Speaking," in 1678 "New Reflections on the Art of Poetry," which were followed by some other useful publications. But in 1684 he came out as the admirer of Descartes, whom he ventured to call "the greatest of all philosophers" in his famous "Entretiens sur les Sciences," which J. J. Rousseau declares he had read a hundred times. About 1686 Father Lami was recalled to Paris, but in 1689 exiled to Rouen for violating one of the statutes of his order. At Rouen he continued till his death in 1715. Lami's "Apparatus ad Biblia Sacra" is a well-known work; but although translated into French, did not awaken such attention as his "Harmonia, sive Concordia quatuor Evangelistarum," about which a violent controversy was stirred up. Lami was talented, ingenious, and not without learning; but he was eccentric, and most of his works are now out of date.—B. H. C.
LAMI or LAMY, François, a French philosopher, born at Montereau, diocese of Chartres, in 1636; died at St. Denis, near Paris, in 1711. He entered the army, but forsook it in 1659 to join the benedictines of St. Maur, amongst whom the rest of his life was spent in study and charity. Though he passed in his time for the best French writer of his order, yet his style is often weak, diffuse, and affected. His fondness for polemics and paradox led him into hot controversies with Bossuet, Malebranche, and most of the learned theologians of his day. Of his numerous and learned works the best known is that entitled "De la connaisance de soi-même."—R. M., B.
LAMI, Giovanni, author and antiquary, born at Santa Croce, near Florence, February, 1697; died 6th February, 1770. In early life he adopted law as his profession, but whilst still young abandoned it for the study of languages, both ancient and modern. In 1732 he became professor of ecclesiastical history in the Florentine lyceum; and in 1733 published his work "De Rectâ Christianorum de Trinitate Sententiâ," which eventually gave rise to a question concerning his orthodoxy. He also offended the jesuits by impugning the authenticity of the Santo Volto and other venerated images. From 1740 to 1770, with the exception of two years, he acted as sole editor of the Novelle Letteraire, a weekly Florentine journal. After a somewhat vexed life he died sitting peacefully with a book upon his knee, and left behind him an honourable reputation for independence. His numerous works in Latin and Italian treat of subjects both sacred and profane.—C. G. R.
