Leverrier (le-vắ′ryắ), Urbain Jean J., a great French astronomer, born in Normandy, March 11, 1811, died at Paris, Sept. 23, 1877. He began life as a student of chemistry under Gay-Lussac, but in 1837 accepted a chair of astronomy at the Polytechnic School in Paris, and for 40 years devoted himself almost exclusively to celestial mechanics. In 1846 he predicted, by a study of the motion of Uranus, that there was a disturbing body in the neighborhood: and this body which we now call Neptune, was discovered on Sept. 23, 1846, by Galle at Berlin, within one degree of the place where Leverrier said it would be found. This prediction is really no more remarkable than many others which have been made in astronomy; but it is one which has always caught popular applause. In 1854 Leverrier succeeded Arago as director of the Paris Observatory, a position which he held with the exception of three years until his death.
Le′vi and Le′vites. In Jewish history Levi was the third son of Jacob and Leah and ancestor of the Levites. The three divisions of Levi's family are said to have received no allotted territory, only 48 scattered cities. The story of the Levites is one of controversy, some maintaining that Levi was the ancestor of the order and others denying that it originally was a tribe at all. The Levites were set apart for the temple service. See Wellhausen's History of Israel.
Lewes (lū′ĭs), George Henry, an English philosophical writer, was born at London in 1817. His first important work was his Biographical History of Philosophy (1845) subsequently much extended and altered — a work written from a positivist point of view and sufficiently proving his ability as a thinker and writer. From 1849 to 1854 he was literary editor of the Leader, during that time publishing his Life of Robespierre and a compend of Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences. His Life of Goethe, which won him a European reputation, was published in 1855. From 1854 he was largely engaged in physiological investigations, with special reference to philosophical problems. To this period belong his Seaside Studies, Physiology of Common Life and Studies in Animal Life, besides papers contributed to the British Association on the spinal cord and on the nervous system. In 1864 he published A Study on Aristotle, and in 1865 founded the Fortnightly Review, but was compelled by ill-health to retire a year later. The chief work of his life, aiming at the systematic development of his philosophical views, is entitled Problems of Life and Mind. His relations with the novelist, “George Eliot,” will be known to readers. He died in 1878.
Lewis and Clark Expedition. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France by the United States in 1803 was anticipated by President Jefferson. As soon as the business was concluded, he recommended to Congress the advisability of exploring our new possessions to determine their character, extent and value; and he named his own private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, a young Virginian, and Captain William Clark of the regular army as competent to lead such a hazardous enterprise. The expedition to the headwaters of the Missouri and thence across the mountains to the Pacific was authorized and immediately organized. A company of 30 were selected — nine hardy young backwoodsmen from Kentucky, 14 soldiers from the army, two Canadian voyageurs, an Indian interpreter, a veteran hunter from the plains and a negro servant — in all, 30 men. In the summer of 1803 they proceeded to St. Louis and wintered at the mouth of the Missouri. In the spring of 1804 the party embarked in boats on the broad current of the “Big Muddy.” They spent some days with Daniel Boone, who was then living at the last outpost of civilization in the Femme Osage district on the Missouri. He advised the explorers to turn back, saying that no white party could make its way through the savage Sioux of Dakota. This was not cheering advice from the most daring and renowned Indian-fighter and hunter in the west, but the intrepid explorers refused to turn back. By October they reached a village of friendly Mandan Indians, near the site of Bismarck, N. D., and decided to camp there for the winter.
None of these plains Indians had ever seen the Great Falls of the Missouri or the western mountains, and they tried to induce the explorers to abandon the enterprise. Living in the village were a young French-Canadian fur-trader and his Indian wife. Daughter of a Shoshone chief, a mountain tribe, she had been captured in a raid by the Sioux five years before and sold to the French voyageur. Light of foot, merry of heart and with a singing voice, she had learned French chansons from her affectionate white husband, and was called Bird-Woman by the Mandans, who regarded her as a superior being. She had long before given up the idea of ever again seeing her old home in the Idaho mountains, when these white explorers revived the hope. Chaboneau, her husband, knew the plains, she the mountains. Together they undertook to guide the party to the Pacific. The leaders of the expedition demurred at taking a woman with a baby, but she argued with convincing eloquence. She could march, she could row, she could swim, she could load a canoe, catch fish, shoot game, set up a tent, cook, make a campfire and moccasins. She had noted the courses of the mountain streams and passes and the Sioux and Shoshone trails.
