and a fisher, and the oldest instrument was that which partakes most of that state. The lyre, composed of two principal pieces, owes the one to the horns of an animal, the other to the shell of a fish. It is probable that the lyre continued with the Ethiopians in this rude state as long as they confined themselves to their rainy, steep, and rugged mountains; and after wards, when many of them descended along the Nile in Egypt, its portability would recommend it in the extreme heats and weariness of their way. Upon their arrival in Egypt, they took up their habitation in caves, in the sides of mountains, which are inhabited to this day. Even in these circumstances, an instrument larger than the lyre must have been inconvenient and liable to accidents in those caverns: but when these people increased in numbers and courage, they ventured down into the plain, and built Thebes. Being now at their ease, and in a fine climate, all nature smiling around them, music and other arts were cultivated and refined, and the imperfect lyre was extended into an instrument of double its compass and volume. The size of the harp could be now no longer an objection; the Nile carried the inhabitants everywhere easily and without effort; and we may naturally suppose in the fine evenings of that country, that the Nile was the favourite scene upon which this instrument was practised; at least the sphinx and lotus upon its head seem to hint that it was someway connected with the overflowings of that river." See HARP and Di CHORD. ness. LYRIC POETRY, was such as the ancients sung to the lyre, or harp. It was originally employed in celebrating the praises of gods and heroes, and its characteristic was sweet Who was the author of it is not known. It was much cultivated by the Greeks; and Horace was the first who attempted it in the Latin language. Anacreon, Alcans, Stesichorus, Sappho, and Horace, were the most celebrated lyric poets of antiquity. cess increased. He had already begun to pave his way to universal power, and now he attempted to make the crown of Sparta elective. To effect this, he attempted to corrupt the oracles of Delphi, Dodona, and Jupiter Ammon, but was even accused of using bribes by the priests of the Libyan temple. He was saved from this accusation by the sudden declaration of war against the Thebans, against whom, together with Pausanias, he was sent. The plan of his military operations was discovered, and the Haliartians, whose ruin he secretly meditated, attacked kim unexpectedly, and he was killed in a bloody battle, which ended in the defeat of his troops, B.C. 394. His body was recovered by his colleagne Pausanias, and honoured with a magnificent funeral. Lysander has been commended for his bravery; but his ambition, his cruelty, and his duplicity, have greatly stained his character. Plut. C. Nep. LYSANDRA, a daughter of Ptolemy La gus, who married Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus. She was persecuted by Arsinoe, and fled to Seleucus for protection. Paus. He pro LYSIAS, an ancient Grecian orator, was born at Syracuse in the 80th Olympiad. At fifteen, he went to Thurion, a colony of the Athenians, and, when grown up, assisted in the administration of the government there many years. When about forty-seven years of age, he returned to Athens; whence, being afterwards banished by the Thirty Tyrants, he went to Megara. Upon his return, Thrasybulus would have had him employed again in state matters; but this not taking place, he spent the remainder of his life as à private man. He was very familiar with Socrates and other illustrious philosophers. fessed to teach the art of speaking; not that he pleaded at the bar himself, but he supplied others with speeches. Fuit Lysias in causis forensibus non versatus (says Cicero), sed egregie subtilis scriptor atque elegans," &c. Quintilian calls him, subtilis atque elegans, et quo nihil, si Oratorio satis sit docere, quaras perfectius. Nihil enim est inane, nihil arcessitum: puro taLYRODI, among the ancients, a kind of men fonti, quam magno flamini, proprior.” musicians who played on the lyre and sung Plutarch and Photius relare, that 425 oraat the same time. This appellation was also tions were formerly exhibited under the given to such as made it their employment to name of Lysias; of which 31 only are now sing lyric poems composed by others. extant. The best editions are those of Taylor LYSANDER, a name common to three in 1759 and 1710, and Reiske in 1772. Spartans, the most celebrated of whom is the The "Lectiones Lysiana" of Taylor present general in the last years of the Peloponnesianus with much curious and interesting informaHe gave battle to the Athenian fleer, consisting of 120 ships, at Egospotamis, and destroyed it all, except three ships. In this celebrated battle, which happened 405 years before Christ, the Athenians lost 3000 men, and with them their empire and influence in the neighbouring states. The government of Athens was then totally changed, and thirty tyrants were set over it by Lysander, whose pride this glorious suc LYRIST. A performer on the lyre. In ancient Greece the Lesbian lyrists were the most celebrated. war. tion. LYSIMA/CHA. Loose-strife. In botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order monogynia; corol wheel-shaped; capsule globular, ucronate, ten-valved. Twenty spe cies. Europe, Asia, America; four common to the wet meads, wet woods, and moist shades of our own country. Four or five species are propagated in our gardens, and are hardy herbaceons triennials and peren niala, rising with erect stalks from a foot and half to three feet high, terminating with spreading flowers of a white colour; the peduncles of some of them are one-flowered. LYSIMACHIA NUMMULARIA. The systematic name of the money-wort. See NUMMU LARIA. LYSIMA CHIA PURPUREA (Lysimachia, æ, f. from Lysimachus, who first discovered it.) The herb, root, and flowers of this plant, Lythrum salicaria of Linnéns, possess a considerable degree of astringency, and are used medicinally in the cure of diarrheas, and dy. senteries, fluor albus, and hymoptysis. See LYTHRUM. LYSIMACHUS. Ancient writers have mentioned many of this name: the most remarkable is a son of Agathocles, who was among the generals of Alexander. After the death of that monarch, he sided with Cassander and Seleucus against Antigonus and Demetrius, and fought with them at the celebrated battle of Ipsus. He afterwards seized and expelled Pyrrhus from the throne of Macedonia, B. C. 286; but his cruelty, and the murder of his son, so offended his subjects, that the most powerful revolt ed, and abandoned the kingdom. He declared war against Seleucus, who had given them a kind reception, and was killed in a bloody battle, 211 years B. C., in the 80th year of his age, and his body was found in the heaps of slain only by the fidelity of a little dog, which had carefully watched near it. Justin relates, that being cast into the den of a hungry lion, by order of Alexander, for having given poison to Calisthenes (vid. CALISTHENES) to save him from ignominy, he wrapped his hand in his mantle, and boldly thrusted it into the lion's mouth, and by twisting his tongue, immediately killed the beast. This act of courage recommended him greatly to Alexander. He was pardoned, and ever after esteemed by the monarch. Justin. Diod. &c. LYSIPPUS, a famous statuary of Sicyon, originally a white-smith, who afterwards ap. plied himself to painting, and next to sculp ture. He flourished about 325 years before the Christian era, in the age of Alexander the Great. The monarch was so partial to him, that he forbade any sculptor but Lysippus to make his statue. Lysippus made no less than 600 statues, the most admired of which were those of Alexander; one of Apollo, of Tarentum, 40 cubits high; one of a man coming out of a bath, with which Agrippa adorned his baths; one of Socras; and those of the 25 horsemen who were drowned in the Granicus. These were so valued that, in the age of Augustus, they were bought for their weight in gold. LYTHRUM. Willow-herb. Loose-strife. London-strife. In botany, a genus of the class dodecandria, order monogynia. Calyx inferior, twelve-toothed; petals six, inserted into the calyx; capsule two-celled, many-seeded. Sixteen species, chiefly natives of the West In VOL. VII. dies and South America: a few of Europe; two common to the wet pits and river-banks of our own country. D. acuminatum, with opposite pointed lanceolate leaves, elongated racemes, solitary peduncles, and lanceolate petals; is often cultivated in our gardens, and is a gandy flower in July and August. It is a native of Siberia. LYTTA, in zoology, a genus of the class insecta, order coleoptera. Antennas filiform; feelers four, unequal, the hind ones clavate; thorax roundish, head inflated, gibbous, shells soft, flexile, as long as the abdomen. Thirtytwo species, all exotics, but scattered over the globe. Many of these, reduced to powder, are capable of vesicating the skin on application to the surface of the body. The most curious and valuable in this respect is the Lytta vesicatoria; green, with black antennas. It is the common cantharis vesicatoria, or Spanish-fly, of the pharmacepoeias, though this insect is usually, but now found to be erroneously, ranked under the genus Meloe. It inhabits Europe, on ash and elder-trees. It is used in pharmacy for various purposes, but chiefly for its vesicatory faculty: it multiplies greatly, and has a nauseous smell, not much unlike that of mice. The female cantharis seems to feel the access of amorous desire in a more violent degree than the male: it is she that courts the male; and in the great act of fecundation, it is she that occupies that place to which in most animals nature directs the other sex. After impregnation, she deposits her eggs in the ground, where they remain till they have undergone the various changes that are to bring them forth winged cantharides. When collected and dried, these insects become so light, that fifty of them hardly weigh a drachm: it is in that state they are grinded down into the well known powder, which constitutes the basis of the common blistering plaster. Of the other purposes to which they have been applied, ignorance is perhaps better than information; and we freely resign to the annalists of dissipation, the task of recording those vain attempts in which they have been employed by the enervated debauchee to restore his virility. The enter prises of love, like the fatigues of war, require certain intervals of rest and tranquillity, without which neither the lover nor the soldier can take the field without hazarding his reputation. Militat omnis amans, et habet sua castra cupido. OVID. ed, with Sir Edward Coke, and Sir Dudley Digges, to carry up the Petition of Right to the house of lords. His first preferment was to succeed his father as a Welch judge, after which he was elected recorder of London. In 1634 he was made solicitor-general, and knighted. In 1639 he was appointed chief justice of the common pleas; and in 1640 lord keeper, at which time he was elected Lord Lyttelton. He concurred in the votes for raising an army, and seizing the militia, in 1641, for which he never thoroughly recovered the king's favour, though he attended his majesty to York, and was suffered to keep his post. He died at Oxford in 1645, and was interred in the cathedral of Christ Church. His Reports were published in 1683, folio. LYTTELTON (George), a noble writer, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, of Hagley in Worcestershire, and born there in 1709. He was educated at Eton school, and thence removed to Christ Church, Oxford, where he did not remain long, but set out in 1728 on his travels. On his return he obtained a seat in parliament, and distinguished himself as one of the warmest opponents of Sir Robert Walpole. He was a frequent speaker on the side of opposition, although his father, who was one of the lords of the admiralty, always voted with the court. Mr. Lyttelton became secretary to the Prince of Wales, who, being driven from St. James's, kept a separate court, and openly countenanced the opposition. When Mr. Pitt, the late earl of Chatham, lost his commission in the guards, in consequence of his spirited behaviour in parliament; Mr. Lyttelton was in waiting at Leicesterhouse, and, on hearing the circumstance, immediately wrote these lines: In 1741, Lyttelton married Miss Lucy Fortescue, sister of Lord Fortescue, of Devonshire, by whom he had a son and two daughters. This amiable woman died in 1747, and her husband bewailed his loss in a most beautiful monody to her memory. In 1749 he married the daughter of Sir Robert Rich, but this marriage did not repair the former breach. When Sir Robert Walpole retired, Lyttelton was made one of the lords of the treasury. In 1747 he published his Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul, a work superior to all praise. He acknowledges that in his juvenile days he had been led into scepti. cism; but maturer research and conviction made him a Christian. In 1751 he succeeded to the title of baronet by the death of his father; and in 1751 he was made cofferer and privy-counsellor. In 1757 he was raised to the peerage. His last literary work was the History of Henry II. which appeared in 1764, after a great application of twenty years. This work reached a third edition in 1768, and does honour to his lordship's judgment and candour. He died the death of a Christian in 1770. Besides the performances above mentioned, he wrote Poems, Persian Letters, and Dialogues of the Dead. |