able attainments, and author of some well-known and useful works, was born at Vaucouleurs in 1709, and died at Paris in 1765. He took orders, but became librarian and professor at the Sorbonne. His "Dictionnaire Geographique portatif" was a translation from the English, and at the same time an abridgment from La Martinière's great work. It has passed through many editions, as also has his "Dictionnaire Historique portatif," a biographical dictionary on a comprehensive plan, of which great use has been made by later compilers, and which is still of value. L'Advocat wrote a Hebrew grammar adapted for self-tuition, which has been several times reprinted, the last time in 1822. He also gave his attention to Hebrew criticism, in which department he published "Remarks on Translations of the Psalms by Pluche," &c.; an examination into the state of the original texts of scripture, in which he considers whether the Vulgate is preferable to them; and a historical and critical interpretation of Psalm lxviii. He wrote a dissertation on the shipwreck of St. Paul, a treatise on councils, &c.—B. H. C.
LÆLIUS, Caius, the friend of the elder Scipio Africanus, accompanied that great general in his Spanish expedition, 210 b.c.; and in command of the fleet, blockaded the port of New Carthage, while it was attacked by Scipio with the land forces. After the capture of the city he received from Scipio a crown of gold and thirty oxen, and was sent to Rome with the captives and the tidings of victory. He afterwards returned to Spain, and defeated the Carthaginian admiral, Adherbal, in the Straits of Gades. In 204 b.c. he co-operated with Scipio in Africa both by sea and land, and received a second time a golden crown for his services. At the decisive battle of Zama in the following year, his charge at the close of the day, in command of the Italian cavalry, chiefly contributed to the victory. He was afterwards appointed to the government of Sicily; was elected consul 190 b.c.; and subsequently obtained the province of Cisalpine Gaul. He was the intimate friend of Polybius, who was chiefly indebted to him for his account of Scipio's Spanish campaigns.—G. BL.
LÆLIUS, Caius, called Sapiens, son of the preceding, born about 186 B C, was elected tribune in 151, prætor 145, and consul in 140 b.c. He accompanied his friend, Scipio the Younger, to the siege of Carthage; and after the destruction of that city he was sent as prætor to Spain, where he obtained important advantages over the guerilla chief Viriatus. Unlike his father, however, he was more of a statesman and philosopher than a soldier. From Diogenes of Babylon, and afterwards from Panætius, he imbibed the Stoic philosophy; and by his calmness amid the triumphs and reverses of public life, he obtained his surname of "the Wise." He was an elegant scholar, and was distinguished as one of the first orators of his time; but his mild and persuasive eloquence was loss effective in the tumult of a public assembly than that of his rival, C. Servius Galba. On one occasion, having twice pleaded in behalf of the revenue contractors without being able to convince the jury of their innocence, he resigned their cause to Galba, and was the first to congratulate him on his success. Lælius was an eminent member of the college of augurs; and when C. Licinius Crassus proposed to transfer their election from the college to the people, Lælius obtained by his oration, "De Collegiis," 145 b.c., the rejection of the bill. He loved to study at his country house, and was the friend of Polybius and Terence. His friendship for the younger Scipio is immortalized by Cicero in his admirable dialogue De Amicitia, in which Lælius is the principal interlocutor. He is also one of the speakers in De Senectute, and De Republicâ. Horace celebrates the "mitis sapientia Læli," and Seneca enjoins his friend Lucilius to "live like Lælius."—G. BL.
LAENNEC, Réné-Theophile-Hyacinthe, a distinguished physician, born in 1781. Having finished his medical education and acquired a great reputation, he was appointed in 1816 chief-physician of the hospital Necker. A pupil of Corvisart, his attention had been early directed to the use of percussion as a means of diagnosis in diseases of the chest; but it was while attending a patient in the hospital that he first conceived the idea of the stethoscope. Wishing to ascertain correctly the sounds of the heart, he made use of, as an instrument for conveying sound, a piece of paper rolled up in the form of a cylinder. The stethoscope and his work upon mediate auscultation, one of the most important of the century, were the results. He died of consumption in 1826.—W. B—d.
LAENSBERGH, Matthieu, of Liege, the author of a celebrated almanac, first published about 1630, and continued to the present day. Nothing positive has been ascertained respecting him; but his almanac has always been a favourite for its prognostications and miscellaneous information. By some it has been supposed that Laensbergh, or Lansbert, was a native of Holland; but the people of Liege are positive in claiming him, and they may be correct.—B. H. C.
LA ENZINA or ENCINA, J. De. See Enzina.
LAER or LAAR, Pieter van, commonly called Bamboccio, is spoken of by his friend Sandrart as a native of Haarlem; but Houbraken, and others after him, say that he was born in the village of Laren, near Naarden, on the Zuyder Zee. He must have been born early in the seventeenth century, as he was in Rome in 1623; for he lived there sixteen years, and left it in 1639, and settled in Haarlem, where he died. The period of his death, however, is likewise unknown; but in 1675, when Sandrart's great work was published, he was already dead, and he may have died some few years previously to that date, about 1673. The origin of his name of Bamboccio is likewise doubtful; Sandrart and his contemporary Passeri say he was so called from his deformity, and accordingly his pictures, which are peculiar in their style, are called Bambocciate, as the works of Bamboccio. Pieter was very much deformed, having a very short neck and body, and very long legs. He was, however, of a good and cheerful disposition, and appears to have been a much loved companion. Nicolas Poussin and Claude were his intimate friends. Laer's pictures are of the ordinary among out-door incidents of Italian life, with small figures—fairs, markets, village scenes, &c.; monks and mountebanks, beggars and banditti; and often with good landscape backgrounds, warm in colouring, and executed with great spirit. He also etched a few plates of animals, but his horses are not in good style or condition. His pictures are very rare. The Dutch call him Bamboots. Sandrart has published his portrait, and it was copied by Houbraken. Passeri gives rather a bad account of his habits, and says he died in 1642, aged about forty-eight. These figures may apply to an elder brother; he seems to have had two, Roeland and J. O. van Laer.—R. N. W.
LAFAGE, Raymond, a celebrated French designer and engraver, was born in 1656 at Lisle in Albigeois. He was a pupil of Rivalx, and spent several years in Rome and other cities of Italy. He led a dissolute life, and died in poverty in Paris or Lyons about 1690. Some authorities, however, place his birth in 1654, and his death in 1684. Lafage was a rapid and brilliant designer, and a clever engraver. His subjects were biblical, historical, and bacchanalian, and he executed his pen-drawings especially with great spirit. His drawings and engravings have always been popular. Eighty-six plates from his designs were published posthumously.—J. T—e.
* LA FARINA, Giuseppe, an Italian politician and author, was born in 1815 at Messina, and embraced the profession of an advocate. In 1837 he took part in the Sicilian insurrection, and fled the island at its disastrous close. He returned in 1839, and established several journals, which were all suppressed; and even his "Recollections of Rome and Tuscany" was prohibited. He betook himself to Florence, where he published two volumes of "Studies on the Thirteenth Century," and illustrated works on Italy, Switzerland, and China; as well as a history of Italy for the people (commenced at this time, but completed some time afterwards), and two historical dramas. In 1847 he started a democratic journal in Tuscany named L'Alba; and on the breaking out of the Sicilian revolution he became a member of the council of war, and deputy to the parliament. He took a leading part in voting the new constitution. In August, 1840, he became minister of the interior, of public works and of education, and subsequently of war; but when the constitution was finally crushed in 1849 he returned to Turin, where he has since published a "History of the Revolution in Sicily in 1848-49;" a "History of Italy from 1815 to 1850," 6 vols.; and a history of controversies between the civil and ecclesiastical power. In 1860, during the glorious campaign in Sicily, he was sent to Palermo by Cavour to counteract the political views of Garibaldi, and was expelled by the dictator from the island.—F. M. W.
LAFAYE, Antoine de, a Swiss protestant minister, a friend of Beza, was born at Châteaudun. Professor of philosophy and afterwards of theology at Geneva, he wrote several works on divinity, and a life of Beza, and translated Josephus and Livy into French. He died in 1615.—D. W. R.
