e
period, gave offence; but the works by which he is best known are his
novels "Le Diable Boiteux" and "Gil Blas," his masterpiece (1668-1747).

LESBOS (36), modern name Mytilene, a mountainous island, the largest
on the Asia Minor coast, 10 m. off shore and 20 m. N. of the Gulf of
Symrna; has a delightful climate, disturbed by earthquakes, fertile soil,
and produces fine olive-oil. In ancient Greek days it was a cradle of
literature, the home of Sappho, and famous for its wine; Turkish since
1462, its population is mostly Greek; chief town Castro (12), on the E.
coast.

LESE-MAJESTY, name given to a crime against the sovereign.

LESLIE, name of a Scottish family distinguished in Scottish history
as well as for military service in foreign parts.

LESLIE, CHARLES, non-juring controversial divine, born in Dublin,
wrote "A Short and Easy Method with the Jews," and another with the
Deists (1650-1722).

LESLIE, SIR JOHN, natural philosopher and professor, born at Largo,
Fifeshire; educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh University; visited
America in 1788, and returned to London 1790; for fifteen years he was
engaged in scientific investigation, invented several instruments, and
published his "Inquiry into the Nature of Heat," for which he received
the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society; appointed to the chair of
Mathematics in Edinburgh in 1805, he was transferred to that of Natural
Philosophy in 1819; continued his researches and inventions, and shortly
before his death was knighted (1766-1832).

LESPINASSE, a French lady, born in Lyons, famous for her wit, to
whom D'Alembert was much attached, and the centre of a learned circle in
Paris in her time (1731-1776).

LESSEPS, FERDINAND DE, French diplomatist, born at Versailles;
conceived the scheme of connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean in
1854, and saw it finished as the Suez Canal in 1869; projected a similar
scheme for a canal at Panama, but it ended in failure, disgrace, and ruin
to the projectors as well as others (1805-1894).

LESSING, GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM, a German author, and founder of modern
German literature, born at Kamenz, Saxony, son of the pastor there; sent
to study theology at Leipzig, studied hard; conceived a passion for the
stage; wrote plays and did criticisms; wrote an essay on Pope; took
English authors as his models, revolted against those of France; made it
his aim to inaugurate or rather revive a purely German literatur