Fr. Lenir; It. Lenire; Sp. Lenizar; Lat. Lenire, (pres. part. leniens, It. and Sp. Leniente,) to soften, to soothe. (A. S. Hlan-an, to lean, bend, yield.) Softening, soothing; mild, gentle; (met.) opposed to austere or severe, harsh or rigid. But they now made worse through his lenitie & gentlenes,

cast stones at him & brake his head.-Udal. Mark, c. 12.

Glaucias was of opinion, That Colocasia was good to benifie or mitigat the acrimonie of humors within the bodie; and withall, to helpe the stomache.

Holland. Plinie, b. xxi. c. 28. Consolatories writ With studied argument, and much perswasion sought, Lenient of grief and anxious thought. Millon. Samson Agonistes. Those milks have all an acrimony; though one would think they should be lenitive.-Bacon. Nat. Hist. § 639.

Nay what shall the Scripture itself? which is like an apothecarie's shop, wherein are all remedies for all infirmities of minde, purgatives, cordialls, alteratives, corroboratives, lenitives, &c.-Burton. Anat. of Melancholy, p. 280. Address

Some lenitives, tallay the fi'riness Of this disease. Daniel. Civil Wars, b. viii. Hee shewed himselfe a true king and kind father, preferring lenity and suppressing seuerity. Stow. Queen Elizabeth, an. 1589. Therefore I do advise the use of lenients, not only by the authority of those ancient and modern chirurgeons, but by my own practice.-Wiseman. Surgery, b. v. c. 9.

Me, let the tender office long engage,
To rock the cradle of reposing age,
With lenient arts extend a mother's breath
Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death.
Pope. Prologue to the Satires.
But we allow lenitives, as cassia, tamarinds, manna.
Wiseman. Surgery, b. v. c. 1.
Their pain, soft arts of pharmacy can ease,
Thy breast alone no lenitives appease.
Pope. Homer, Iliad, b. xvi.
1206

180m feel

hand to hed! Nem Deliser, rayer, 'd

gicide, Acti

It may be also, that some bodies have a kinde of lentour, and are of a more depertible nature than others; as we see it evident in colouration; for a small quantity of saffron will tinet more, than a very great quantity of brasil or wine. Bacon. Naturall Historie, s. 857. By reason of their clamminess and lentor they [arborescent hell-hocks) are banished from our sallet.-Evelyn. Acetaria. In this spawn [frog's) of a lentous and transparent body, Jenda est, velure to be discerned many specks. Pret bumi, Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 13. LENTISCK. Fr. Lentisque; Lat. Lentiscus, quod ipsa lentescat arbor, dum resinam fundit, (Vossius.)

(perhaps and

Lentile, Fr. La eed, somewhat

formed, for a illed Lati

1 red pimples

Who courteous bad us on soft beds recline
Of lensticks, and young branches of the vine.

If he was of such tenderness and compassion as to heal
the leprosy and distemper of the body upon asking, do we
not think that he will be much redier to commiserate and

heal the dangerous, loathsome leprosy of the soul, which is
sin, upon the vehement entreaties of a sincere heart.
This pleasing fruit [the cashew] if turtle join its aid,
South, vol. vi. Ser. 12.
Removes that worst of ails, disgrace of art,
The lothsome leprosy's infectious bane.

LE/PID.

(met.) to a polished wit or humour, from Gr.
Grainger. The Sugar Cane, b. iv.
Lat. Lepidus, from Lepos, applied
Aeris, a scale.

Having a polished wit or humour, a graceful or
agreeable pleasantry or facetiousness; pleasant,

Fawkes. Theocritus, Idyl. 7. facetious.

LEONINE, i. e. lion-like.

So was he ful of leonin corage.

Chaucer. The Monkes Tale, v. 14,563. LEOPARD. Formerly (sometimes) written Libbard. Fr. Léopard; It. and Sp. Leonpardo, pardo; Lat. of the Lower Ages, Leopardus. Pliny speaks of leones, quos pardi generavere, (b. viii. c. 16.)

Thei sauh kynge's banere, raumpand thre lebardes.
R. Brunne, p. 305.

About this king ther ran on every part
Fal many a tame leon and leopart.

Chaucer. The Knightes Tale, v. 2188.

Within a large wyldernesse,
Where was lyon and leonesse,

The leparde, and the tygre also.-Gower. Con. A. b. iv

It fortuned Belphebe with her peares

The woody nimphs, and with that lovely boy, Ta hunting then the libbards and the beares.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 7.

The certain issue of the strife divin'd,
His prescient mind

As sure a prize, as when the leopard draws
The fearful hare within his ravenous paws.

LEPER. Le'PEROUS.

Hoole. Orlando Furioso, b. xxvi.

Fr. Lèpre; It. Lebbra; Sp. Lepra; Lat. Lepra; Gr. Aeжpa, LAPRO'SITY. from Aeros, or AεTIS, a scale. Leprosy, from Wiseman. Applied met. -see the quotation Leper (usually the person dis

LEPROSY.

LEPROUS. LEPROUSLY.

d) is-in Wiclif-the disease itself.

And lo a leprous man cam and worschipide him, and seid, thou wilt, thou maist make me clene-And anoon pe of him was clensid.-Wichf. Matthew, c. 8.

And lo, there came a leper, and worshipped him saying:

r, yf thou wylt, thou canst make me clene. And im

ely his leprosye was clensed.-Bible, 1551. Ib.

He looked on her ugly lepers face

The which before was white as lely floure,

Fraging his hands.-Chaucer. Complaint of Creseide.

gemong the leper-folke alas.-Id. Ib.

Alper-lady rose, and to her wend.-Id. Ib.

Ta leper-loge take for thy goodly boure,

And for thy bed take now a bounche of stro.-Id. Ib.

And soone a leaper-man toke off the ring.-Id. Ib.

Then he was in his lustie age

lepre caught in his visage.-Gower. Con. A. b. ii. Therefore also he healed all that had faith to be

Some elegant figures and tropes of rhetorike frequently used by the best speakers, and not seldome even by sacred writers, do lie very near upon the confines of jocularity, and are not easily differenced from those sallies of wit, wherein the lepid way doth consist.-Barrow, vol. i. Ser. 14.

ed, both good men and bad. The ten lepers; though Fe returned, to give glory to God. That no man, never ad, should doubt of his salvation, upon believing. Grew. Cosmo. Sacra, b. v. c. 3. s. 37.

my secure hower thy vncle stole

yce of cursed hebenon in a violl,

in the porches of mine eares did poure

Sheperous distilment.-Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act i. sc.5.

thee the silly amorous sucks his death, casing in a leprous harlot's breath.

I say, that Nature hath an intention to make all d: and that, if the crudities, impurities, and of metals were cured, they would become gold, are but dreames.-Bacon. Naturall Historie, § 326.

Donne. The Perfume, Elegy 4.

of easy wax! do but imagine,

he disease has left you, how leprously office would have cling'd unto your forehead. Tourneur. The Revenger's Tragedy, Act v.

Theory of the Arabians was a quite other disease eb] which by the Greeks is called elephantiasis,

thing else but an universal cancer of the whole

i. e. to Learn, (qv.)
To learn or teach; to instruct.
And Lore, learning; teaching,
doctrine, instruction.

LES

(see the quotation from Bale's Votaries) are used Lest,-(see the quotation from Gower) and least as the regular past tense, contracted from les-ed or leas-ed, of the A. S. verb Les-an; and whether used as adjective or conjunction, are considered by Tooke to be this same past tense or past part. proper use of them, there being nothing expressed and, with the article that (either expressed or undimisso. derstood,) mean no more than-hoc dimisso or quo He produces two instances of the imsomething else would follow. or understood in either sentence, quo dimisso,

To diminish, to decrease, to reduce.

twentig; i. e. twenty dismiss (or take away) (he Less. Our ancestors the A. S. instead of eighshould perhaps rather have said withhhold) one, teen, nineteen, said, An læs twentig, twa las two, &c.

We also say, He demanded twenty, I gave him two less, i.e. I gave him twenty, dismiss two and in every use of less or least, the signification of dismissing, separating, or taking away, he pronounces to be the imperative of the same A. S. verb, Les-an, and to signify-dimitte or hoc (again add, of withholding) is conveyed. Les, then, dimisso, dismiss this, or this being dismissed. is sometimes used for unless, (qv.) In confirmaIt tion, he remarks, that the Gr. El un, R. Gloucester, p. 87. Nisi, (ne sit,) It. Se non, Sp. Si no, Fr. Si non, all the Lat. mean, be it not.

LERE, v.
LERE, n.
LE'RING, n.
Lore.
LO'RING, n.
LOʻRESMAN.
Constantyn lette also in Jerusalem chirches rere,
And wyde aboute elles wer, Christendom to lere.

The lerid & the lewid, that wonned in the South.

What tyme I left this lore the day is for to witen.

R. Brunne, p. 38.
Bote thei goure lore folweden.
Id. p. 341.
Piers Ploukman, p. 277.
Bote as his loresman lereth hym. he by leyveth and
troweth.
Id. p. 236.
Id. p. 294.

But, lordes, wol ye maken assurance,
As I shall say, assenting to my lore.

Id. The Man of Lawes Tale, v. 4762.

Though Tooke may be right in his etymology, (and indeed he appears to have fully established that he is so,) his mode of interpretation will not with propriety said to be dismissed, separated, or immediately suit in all cases, as that cannot be taken away, which was never united to, or possessed by, that from which it shall be so said to be dismissed, &c.; the word with-held may supply the deficiency; or a consequential usage must be introduced, e. g.

As

And after hus lerynge thei lyven. And he had lever talken with a page, Than to commune with any gentil wight, Ther he might leren gentillesse aright. Chaucer. The Frankelcines Tale, v. 11,006. he never was equal, it was not by the privation, Goldsmith was less in size than Johnson. loss, or taking away of bulk once possessed that he became less or minor; or negation of that, which had been withheld in was by the absence his formation; or by a consequential usage, (from instances where a minority or inferiority had been produced by an act of taking away, &c. to instances where that minority or inferiority existed without such act,) less became employed to denote immediately an inferiority or minority, whether resulting from privation or negation. of the adjective least. The like may be said As now usedTo less or lessen, is to diminish, to decrease; to cause to be smaller or more minute; to lower, to degrade, to impair, to weaken.

He waited after no pompe ne reverence,
Ne maked him no spiced conscience.
But Christes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he followed it himself.

Id. Prol. to the Canterbury Tales, v. 729.

My fader but I were inspired
Through lore of you, I wot no waye
What gentilnesse is for to seye.-Gower. Con. A. b. vi.
The loresman of the shepeherdes,

And eke of hem that netherdes

Was of Arcade, and hyght Pan.-Id. Ib. b. v.

In many secret skills she had been conn'd her lere.

Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 12.

The gentle shepheard sat beside a springe,

All in the shadowe of a bushye brere,
That Colin hight, which well coulde pype and singe,
For hee of Tityrus his songes did lere.

"He lest," (Gower,) he lost. “He least," (Bale,) he
dismissed, he put away, he relinquished. "Lessed

of his care;" (written by Tyrwhitt as in the se-
cond quotation from Gower-lissed, qv.) "of his

Spenser. Shepheard's Calender. December. wound ylessed;" i. e. loosened, freed, relieved from.

Thereto she learned was in magicke leare.
Id. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 3.

But these conditions doe to him propound;
That, if I vanquishe him, he shall obey
My law, and ever to my lore be bound.
Id. Ib. b. v. c. 5.
Most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lore.

That all they, as a goddess her adoring,
Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i.
Hir wisdome did admire, and hearkned to her loring.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 8.

He, with Palemon, oft recounted o'er
The tales of hapless love in ancient lore,
Recall'd to memory by th' adjacent shore.

Less, adj.-equivalent to the Lat. Minor, infe-
rior, smaller, more minute.
It is still used, com-

pared, (sc.) lesser.

Lest, or least,-smallest, minutest; than which
not any thing is smaller or more minute.

So that to the lasse Briteyne ther ne com aliue non.
R. Gloucester, p. 96.
Id. p. 26.

Me schulde fynde the les such spouse bruche do.

And wo so here ys aslawe, ys deth hym sal be
In lesnesse of al ys synnys, & ys soule salle fle.
And be ybrogt by vore God, ar that body be cold.

For ten mark men solde a littille bulchyn,
Litille lesse men told a bouke of a moutoun.

Id. p. 173.

R. Brunne, p. 174. But he that is lesse in the kyngdom of heavenes: is more than he.-Wiclif. Matt. c. 11.

Notwithstandyng he yt is lesse [Modern Version, least] in the kingdom of heauen is greater than he.

Bible, 1551. Matt. c. 11. Therefore wake ye for ye witen not whanne the Lord of the house cometh in the eventide or at mydnight or at cockis

Back, and indeed a most miserable disease; but I dismiss or put away, (sc.) part; and, consequen- crowyng or the mornyng lest whan he come sodeynly he

tially

1207

finde you sleeping.-Wiclif. Mark, c. 13.

To teach, to improve, to reprove.
Now salle we turne ageyn tille our owen lessoun.
R. Brunne, p. 31.
Ich lerned among Lombardes. a lesson.
Piers Plouhman, p. 99.
Emprinfeth wel this lesson in your minde.
Chaucer. The Clerkes Ta!s, v. 9069.
And so recorde I my lesson. Gower. Con. A. b. iv.
Brut. Could you not haue told him
As you were lesson'd.-Shakes. Coriolanus, Act ii. sc. 3.
Ophe. I shall th' effect of this good lesson keepe,
As watchmen to my heart.-Id. Hamlet, Act i. sc. 3.

The Jews read the law in their synagogues however on the sabbath, and on other days they tasted no food, till they had read a section of it either in publick or private; and every man knows how solemnly and constantly this hath ever been done in all the assemblies of the Christian church. For hence they confirmed their opinions in doctrine, and learned lessons of holiness in conversation.

Comber. Companion to the Temple, pt. i. s. 9. Let me take warning, lesson'd to distill, And, imitating Heav'n, draw good from ill.

Churchill. Gotham, b. iii. See LATE. Goth. Lat-yan; A. S. Lat-ian, læt-an; Ger. and Dut. Letten; tardare, morari, impedire; to retard, to delay, to hinder, keep back or behind. It is still a common word in legal conveyances.

To hinder, keep back or behind; to impede, to obstruct, to withhold.

Whiche raftours, for lettyng of men in the way, were kut of by the earthe. for other wyse myght no man haue hem a way.-R. Gloucester, p. 415. Note.

His dede ne wille we lette, be the martir Saynt Denys. R. Brunne, p. 87. He ys a lettare of loue. and lieth all tymes. Piers Plouhman, p. 16. Not that I caste to ghou a snare, but to that that is onest and that ghyueth esynesse without letting to make preieris to the Lord.-Wiclif. 1 Corynth. c. 7.

Wo is me that so many let games, and purpose breakers been marked waiters, soche prisoners as I am euermore, to ouerlooke and to hinder, and for soche lettours, it is harde any soche iewell to winne.

Chaucer. The Testament of Loue, b. i.
There was no stone, there was no roote,
Whiche might letten hem the weie,
But all was voide and take a waie.-Gower. Con. A. b. iv.
There ben other vices slowe,
Whiche vnto loue do great lette,
If thou thyn herte vpon them sette.

That thou mayest be the more effectually roused up out of
this tepidity and lethargicainess.

More. On the Seven Churches, c. 9.
A grain of glory, mixt with humbleness,
Cures both a fever, and lethargickness.-Herbert.
Too long Jove lull'd us with lethargic charms,
But now in peals of thunder calls to arms:
In this great day he crowns our full desires,
Wakes all our force, and seconds all our fires.

Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. xv.

But then the spirit, rous'd by honest shame,
Shook off that lethargy, and soar'd to fame.

Churchill. An Epistle to William Hogarth.

If thine the trust our Italy to keep,

LEV

Cham, whose labour is yet in mynde,
Was he, whiche firste the lettres fonde.

Neyther do they thinke it lawfull to put them [verses] in
Gower. Con. A. b. iv.
wrighting, wheras in al other thinges, for their accompts,
as wel publique as priuate, they use the Greek letters.
He [Wyllyam with ye longe berde,] was sharpe of wyt &
Goldinge. Cæsar, fol. 156.
some deale lettred.-Fabyan, an. 1198.

Brag. Monsieur, are you not lettered?
Page. Yes, yes, he teaches boys the horne-booke.
Shakespeare. Love's Labour Lost, Act v. sc. 1.

As for letters, I am of opinion, that they were in Assyria
Thou art her shepherd.-Hoole. Orlando Furioso, b. xvi. Egypt, but others say they came first from Syria.
from the beginning, time out of mind: but some thinke,
and namely Gellius, that they were deuised by Mercurie in

Let her not perish in lethargic sleep;

Here in the gloom the pamper'd sluggards luli
The lazy hours, lethargically dull.

LE THE.

LETHE AN.

LE'THIED.

Fawkes. A Voyage to the Planets.
Gr. Anon, forgetfulness.
Forgetfulness, oblivion. See the
quotation from Milton.

Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rouls

Her wat'ry labyrinth, wherof who drinks,
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

Millon. Paradise Lost, b ii.
They ferry over this lethean sound
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment.-Id. Ib.
Epicurean cookes,

Sharpen with cloylesse sawce his appetite,
That sleepe and feeding may prorogue his honour,
Even till a lethied dullnesse.

Shakespeare. Antony & Cleopatra, Act ii. sc. 1. One portion of that lethean cup (which we must all take down upon our entrance into that land of forgetfulness) will probably drown the memory, deface the shape of all those ideas with which we have here stuffed our minds.

Barrow, vol. iii. Ser. 14.

The soul with tender luxury you fill,
And o'er the sense lethean dews distill.

LE/THE. LETHAL.

Falconer. Shipwreck, c. 3. Lat. Lethum, death. Mr. LETHIFEROUS. is used by many of the old Steevens says that lethe, death, translators of novels: he produces the instance of ethal, quoted below. Nares has another from the Palace of Pleasure.

For vengeance' wings bring on thy lethal day.
Those that are really lethiferous, are but excrescencies of
Cupid's Whirligig. (1616.)
-Dr. Robertson. Eudoxa, p. 151. (1658.)

LETTER, n.
LETTER, U.
LETTERLESS.
etymology; perhaps from litum, past part. of lin-
ere to smear; as one of the earliest modes of
writing was by graving the characters upon
tablets smeared over or covered with wax. (Pliny,

Fr. Lettre; It. Lettera; Sp.
Letra; Lat. Litera; of which
Vossius has not decided the

Holland. Plinie, b. xvii. c. 56.

patents under the great seal of England, made Duke of
About the beginning of July, General Monk was by letters
Albemarle, &c., and summoned by writ to the House of
Peers.-Baker. Charles II. an. 1660.

A meer daring letterless commander can, in a rational
way, promise himself no more success in his enterprise than
a mastif can in his contest with a lion.

Waterhouse. Apology for Learning, p. 125. (1653.)
Around my throne the letter'd rabbins stand,
Historic leaves revolve, long volumes spread,
The old discoursing as the younger read.

The essence of letters doth consist in their power or
Prior. Solomon, b. i.
proper sound, which may be naturally fixed and stated, from
the manner of forming them by the instruments of speech;
and either is, or should be, the same in all languages.
Wilkins. Real Character, pt. iii. c. 10.

The first [false wits] I shall produce are the lipogramma-
tists, or letter-droppers of antiquity, that would take an
poem.-Spectator, No. 59.
exception without any reason, against some particular letter
in the alphabet, so as not to admit it once into a whole

You have frequently pressed me to make a collection of
my Letters, (if, in truth, there be any which deserve a pre-
ference,) and give them to the public. I have selected them
accordingly.-Melmoth. Pliny, b. i. Let. 1.

LETTUCE.

Fr. Laictue; It. Lattuga; Sp.
It doth sette a hotte stomake in a very good temper; . . .
Lectuga; Lat. Lactuca.
name, see the quotation from Pliny.
For the origin of the
eaten in the euenynge, it prouoketh slepe.
Amonge al herbes, none hath so good iuyce as lettyse.
Sir T. Elyot. The Castel of Hellh, b. ii.
Yet is there another distinct kind of the blacke lettuce,
which, for the plentie that it yeeldeth of a milkie white juice
them are thought to cause sleepe. In old time, our auncest
procuring drowsenesse, is termed meconis, although all of
ers knew no other lettuce in Italy but this alone, and
thereupon it tooke the name in Latine lactuca.
Holland. Plinie, b. xix. c. 5.

One lettuce makes a shift to squeeze
Up through a tuft you call your trees.

LEVACION. Į
Swift. Dr. Delany's Villa.
pressed.
LEVATOR.
Levation, i. e. elevation.
Levator,-
An instrument to raise bones sunk or de-

c. 11.)
Letter is applied to the different characters or
As which constitute the alphabet of any lan- cion.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 890.

No such ceremonye
brestes, and holding vp of handes at the sight of the leva.
but only kneling knocking on

Caze:

To a writing addressed from one to another; an

epistle:

To

Sations of letters,) without any metaphorical or the sense or meaning of the words, (comsequential application.

Letters,

(collectively,)-literature or learning. The verb, to letter,-to grave, inscribe, or mark

wah letters.

For thuhe youre kyng be welle i lettred.

Ure syng by feer is more i lettred.-R. Gloucester, p. 482. iche for sothe in science of lettres knowe thy konnyng. Id. p. 483.

Llers tille his frends for help about sent.

R. Brunne, p. 59.

Lee it thus lowede men. for lettrede hit knowth

Tat treathe and trewe loue, ys no tresour betere.

Piers Plouhman, p. 19.

being at Masse in ye churche of Westmynster vpon Whyt
But the legende of his lyfe in the churche telleth, that he,

laught.-Fabyan, vol. i. c. 110.

sondaye, in the tyme of the leuacion of ye sacrement, he

Some chirurgeons do bring out the bone in the bore; but
it will be safer to raise it up with your levator, when it is so
cut, that it is but retain'd in some part.
Wiseman. Surgery, b. v. c. 9.
Fr. Levant; It. and Sp.
Levante; the East Country-
from levant, raising or rising,
raise or rise; because there the sun raises or
(orient,) part. of lever, to
elevates himself.

LEVANT, adj.
LEVANT, n.
LEVANTER.

LEVANTINE.

The East; a wind coming from the East; the
Eastern part of the Mediterranean. See LEVEE.

And the superscripcioun was writun ouer him in Greeke continually following after the heauenly motions, looseth

The which if it be true, as truely it is, then wee may say that the aforesayd easterne current or leuant course of waters

-Wiclif. Luke, c. 25.

Freide with greet voice, Poul thou maddist, many ten thee to woodnesse.-Id. Dedis, c. 26.

auantage, in o wise,

your priests be not so wise,

had to lettred (as am I).-Chaucer. Rom. of the Rose.

not altogether this force, but is doubled rather by an other
current from out the north east.

In the yeere 1550, the 13 Nouember, I Roger Bodenham,
captaine of the barke Aucher, entered the said ship at
Grauesend for my voiage to the Ilands of Candia and Chio
in the Leuant.-Id. Ib. vol. ii.
p. 99.
1209

Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. iii. p. 26.

They are called Levants both from their course, as blowfreshening and rising higher as the sun rises, for they are ing from the East where the sun rises, and also from their generally at the height when the sun comes to the meridian, and duller as the sun declines.

Sir Hen. Sheere. Lord Halifax's Miscell. p. 34 They [the seeds of the Platanus] should be gathered late in Autumn, and brought us from some more levantine parts than Italy. Evelyn. Silva, c. 22.

But let them not break prison to burst like a levanter, to sweep the earth with their hurricane, and to break up the fountains of the great deep to overwhelm us.

"Sire," heo seyde, "y leue not that my sustren al soth seide."-R. Gloucester, p. 30.

thoughtis. for a nothir man leueth that he mai ete alle
But take ghe a syk man in bileue, not in demyngis of
thinges but he that is syk ete wortis.-Wiclif. Rom. c. 14.

Salomon sayth: Leveth me, and yeveth credence to that
I shall say.-Chaucer. The Tale of Melibeus.
And commonliche in euery nede
The worst speche is rathest herde,
And leued, till it be answerde.-Gower. Con. A. b. iii.
Cassandra then, inspired with Phebus' sprite,
Her prophet's lippes yet neuer of us leeued
Disclosed eft.

Surrey. Virgile. Eneis, b. ii.
Because it is a presumpteous hope, loking to be saued
with damnable deuelyshe lieuing.
Sir T. More. Workes, p. 799.
LEVE E, Fr. from Lever, to raise or rise;
the rising or time of rising, (see the quotation
from Gray :) applied to-

An assembly of visitors at or soon after the time of rising; a large assemblage of visitors to people of rank or power.

I humbly conceive the business of a levee is to receive the
acknowledgments of a multitude.-Spectator, No. 193.
From dirty levees he unstain'd ascends,
And firm in senate, stands the patriot's ground.
Thompson. Liberty, pt. iv.

His lordship's palace, from its stately doors,
A flood of levee-hunting mortals pours.

I set out one morning before five o'clock, the moon shining
Spectator, No. 193. Virgil.
through a dark and misty autumnal air, and got to the sea-
coast time enough to be at the sun's levee.

To aim at, to endeavour to hit.
And contrevede the compas
And cast out by squire. bothe lyne and levell.
Piers Plouhman, p. 190.

For all his minde on honour fixed is,
To which he levels all his purposis.

Spenser. Mother Hubberd's Tale.
Bertram de Gordon, standing on the castle wall, leuelled
dart in the left arme or shoulder.-Stow. Rich. I. an. 1197.
a quarrel out of a crosbow, and smote him with a venomed

As for the rule and square, the levell, the turner's instru-
ment and key, Theodorus Samius devised them.
Holland. Plinie, b. vii. c. 56.
Which might perhaps advance their minds so far,
Above the level of subjection, as
T'assume to them the glory of that war.

Daniel. Civil Wars, b. iv.

And only level lies upon the rise and set.

Neither would praises and actions appear so levelly con-
Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 16.
current in many other of the Grecians, as they do in these.
Hobbs. Thucydides, b. ii.

They were termed levellers upon a pretended principle
which they espoused, to endeavour to obtain such an equal
righteous distribution of justice in government to all degrees
7 P

Saint Augustine saith, the Christians do keep it spiritually so that if tythe be not given in the tenth, according to the Levitical institution, yet the spiritual meaning of providing for the clergy, our Levites, remaineth.

Sir H. Spelman. On the Rights of the Church, c. 26. What right of jurisdiction soever can be from this place (17th Deut.) levitically bequeath'd must descend upon the ministers of the gospel equally, as it finds them in all other Wilkins. Archimedes, c. 4. points equal.-Milton. Reason of Church Government, b. i.

LEVITY. It. Levità; Sp. Levedad; Lat.
LEVITATION. Levitas; from levis, light, which
Vossius thinks is from Gr. Aenis, cortex, qui levis-
simus.

Lightness; (met.) fickleness, changeableness;
instability or unsteadiness, inconstancy; frivolity,
opposed both lit. and met. to gravity.

But where the bodies are of such several levitie, and gra-
vity, as they mingle not, there can follow no imbibition.
Bacon. Naturall Historie, § 865.
Levity, whereby, what we call light bodies swim; a thing
no less useful in the world than its opposite, gravity, is in
many respects, to divers tribes of animals, but particularly
serviceable to the rising up of vapours, and to their convey.
ance about the world.-Derham. Physico- Theol. b. i. c. 5.
So swiftly mov'd their feet, they might with ease,
Scarce moisten'd, skim along the glassy seas,
Or with a wondrous levity be borne
O'er yellow harvests of unbending corn.

Eusden. Ovid. Met. b. x.
Letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as
very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong
judgments of men and books, and only excusable from the
youth and inexperience of the writer.

Pope. The Dunciad, b. ii. Note.

The lungs also of birds, as compared with the lungs of quadrupeds, contain in them a provision, distinguishingly Paley. Natural Theology, c. 12. s. 4.

calculated for the same purpose of levitation.

The vices of levity are always ruinous to the common people, and a single week's thoughtlessness and dissipation: is often sufficient to undo a poor workman for ever. Smith. Wealth of Nations, b. v. c. 1.

Fr. Lever; It. Levare; Sp. Levar; Lat. Levare, to raise. See LEVITY.

To raise, to lift up, to lift off, (to bear off, to carry away,) to collect or gather. To levy an army, is a common expression; to levy a siege (Holinshed) is not so, though correct. Spenser writes-leaved.

Leuyenge vnreasonable taxes and trybutes on the tem-
peralte.
R. Brunne, p. 89. Note.
And after all an army strong she leav'd,
To war on those which him had of his realme bereav'd.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 10.

The duke is straight advised to retire
Into the bounds of Wales, to lery aid.