government situation at Caen, he was by the influence of Bossuet summoned to Paris, to take part in educating the grandson of the Great Condé. La Bruyère, receiving a considerable salary, continued to be the friend and dependent of his pupil after that the latter ceased to require his services. He was thus brought continually into connection with the court of Louis XIV., and could behold society in its most brilliant, study it in its most various phases. Gifted with the talent of a keen observer, rather than with that of a profound thinker, a painter still more than a moralist, La Bruyère rapidly seized the shifting scenes, the diversified individualities around him. The treasures which his searching and satirical glance had long been gathering, were grouped into definite and substantial literary shape in "The Characters of Theophrastus, with the Characters or Manners of the Present Age." An inaccurate, perhaps incompetent translator of Theophrastus, La Bruyère admirably succeeded in delineating what he himself had seen; and the work, first published in 1686, and incessantly amended and augmented, quickly passed through numerous editions. Shortly after its appearance the author was elected a member of the French Academy. His other productions are unimportant. La Bruyère died of apoplexy, suddenly and without pain, on the 11th May, 1696, in the mansion of his patrons the Condés at Versailles. He is said to have abandoned the whole profits of his works, which were immense, to a little girl, the daughter of his publisher Michallet. Neither seeking to shine in conversation, nor to meddle with affairs, La Bruyère strove to gain the calm and the happiness of the sage after the antique model.—W. M—l.
LA CAILLE, Nicolas Louis, an eminent French astronomer, was born at Rumigny on the 10th of March, 1713, and died in Paris on the 25th of March, 1762. He was the son of a retired officer of artillery, who sent him to study at the college of Lisieux. On the death of his father the young La Caille would have been left destitute, but for the generosity of the duke of Bourbon, who supplied him with the means of prosecuting his studies in theology and astronomy. Having distinguished himself by his knowledge of the latter science, he was made known to Jacques Cassini, by whom he was employed in the observatory of Paris. He was next engaged, along with Maraldi, in the geographical survey of the coast of France between Nantes and Bayonne; and in 1739 and 1740 he accomplished a trigonometrical survey, by means of which the length of an arc of the meridian extending through France was for the first time correctly determined. That measurement was an event of great importance in the history of science. Newton, reasoning from the laws of mechanics and the theory of gravitation, had predicted that the earth, by reason of its rotation, would be found to be an oblate spheroid, swelling at the equator and flattened at the poles; and that consequently the lengths of the successive degrees of latitude on a given meridian, being proportional to their respective radii of curvature, would be found to increase from the equator towards the poles. The trigonometrical survey of France, made between 1675 and 1716 by Picard and Cassini, had seemed to give a contrary result, showing a gradual diminution in the length of the degrees of latitude from the equator towards the poles. But La Caille proved that this apparent result was the effect of an error which he detected in the measurement of a base by Picard, and that the degrees of latitude diminished in length from the equator towards the poles in the manner predicted by Newton. In 1740 he was appointed professor of mathematics at the Collége Mazarin, at the observatory of which he carried on a long series of observations in order to verify and extend the catalogue of the fixed stars. Being deeply impressed with the importance of a careful telescopic exploration of the southern heavens, he prevailed upon the government to send him on an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, where he measured an arc of the meridian, and in the course of one hundred and twenty-seven nights made observations to determine the position of ten thousand fixed stars, returning to Paris in 1757. A great part of the remainder of his life was spent in reducing these observations, and preparing the famous work which was published after his death by his friend Maraldi—"Cælum Australe stelliferum." His death, at the early age of forty-nine, was caused by gout, believed to have been aggravated by fatigue of body and mind. Besides the valuable qualities of almost unequalled industry and accuracy, the character of La Caille as a scientific observer was distinguished by the still more valuable qualities of perfect candour and good faith; so that all his observations may be relied on as having been recorded exactly as he made them, without any attempt to disguise errors or to accommodate results to preconceived notions.—W. J. M. R.
LACARRY, Gilles, an erudite French historian, born in 1605; died in 1684. He taught rhetoric, philosophy, and theology at Clermont and at Montpellier, and was afterwards rector of the college of Cahors. At Clermont he formed a valuable collection of ancient coins and medals. He was a very voluminous writer, and his "Historia Galliarum sub præfectis prætorii Galliarum," gives an account not found elsewhere of the administration of the Gaulish provinces.—P. E. D.
LACÉPÉDE, Bernard-Germain-Etienne de la Ville, Comte de, a celebrated French naturalist, was born at Agen in 1756. The family of De la Ville was noble; but the subject of our memoir took the name Lacépéde from his maternal uncle. Inheriting a good property, he was destined for the army; but from a very early period he devoted himself to the study of natural history. In this he had the good fortune to have for his preceptors Buffon and Daubenton. When he arrived first at Paris, Buffon held the appointment of superintendent of the Jardin du roi, and at his recommendation the young Lacépéde was appointed curator of the king's cabinet. After the death of Buffon, at the breaking out of the Revolution, he took an active part in political affairs, and successively filled the posts of president of the section of Paris, commandant of the national guard, deputy from Paris to the legislative assembly, and afterwards president of that body. He there advocated moderate opinions, and during the Reign of Terror compromised his safety by making some energetic representations to Danton. He had, however, the good fortune to get himself secreted from persecution till about 1795, when the convention erected the Jardin du roi into a public school. He was then enabled to return to Paris, and at the Garden of plants a new chair of zoology was created for him, in which he lectured on reptiles and fishes with great success. In 1799 he was elected a member of the senate, and was chosen president in 1801. In 1803 he was created grand chancellor of the legion of honour, and in 1805 had the grand cordon of the order bestowed upon him. During the empire he showed himself a devoted adherent of Napoleon, and was in turns member of the council of administration and president of the senate. In 1814 he accompanied the Empress Marie Louise in her retirement to Blois; and in 1815 Napoleon, on his return from Elba, made him a peer of France. After the Restoration he was taken into favour by the king, and had his peerage, which he had forfeited, restored to him. He died near St. Denis in 1825. Lacépéde may be viewed in two lights—as a politician and as a naturalist. In the former he has left upon record a clue to his success. "God has given me the grace," he said," never to fail to show obedience to the laws and to the established government." As a naturalist he was a profound observer and an elegant writer. His style is eloquent and correct in details, and he knew how to invest with agreeable information the dry facts of science. His best work, amongst many, is his "History of Oviparous Quadrupeds and Serpents."—W. B—d.
LA CHAISE, François de, a French jesuit, born in 1624, was chosen by Louis XIV. to be his confessor in 1675. He always used his great influence in the French court to soothe the violence of contending factions. It was at his instance that the king contracted his secret marriage with Mme. de Maintenon. Always opposed to the Jansenists, he had some share in the destruction of Port Royal. Died in 1709.—D. W. R.
* LACHAMBEAUDIE, Pierre, was born at Sarlat in 1806. His fables obtained great popularity in France, and secured him the friendship of Béranger, whose influence frequently shielded him from punishment that would otherwise have visited his political eccentricities. After the coup d'état of 1851 he was banished, but was subsequently allowed to return to France. His "Fables" have gone through eight editions.—W. J. P.
LACHMANN, Karl, a celebrated critic and philologist, was born at Brunswick, 4th March, 1793, where his mind received its first scientific development. In 1809 he studied one session in Leipsic and heard Hermann. He continued his studies at Göttingen, where in 1815 he completed his edition of Propertius. After Napoleon's return from Elba he entered the Prussian service. In 1816 he became principal master in Frederick's gymnasium at Königsberg; and in 1818 professor extraordinary in the university of that place. After a journey to Wolfenbüttel,
