a

corđer, and 8 aldermen, has a free school found. Devonshire, and other places, to a long and taled by Q. Elizabeth, and is a populous trading low trough, which receives the powdered ore aftown. Its markets are on Thursday and Satur- ter it comes out of the box or coffer, which is a day, and it has 4 fairs. It had a monastery and fort of mortar, in which it is powdered with iron a noble castle, which, because of its strength, was pestles. The powdered ore, which is washed into called Castle Terrible, and was given by K. Richard the launder by the water from the coffer, is al1. to his brother, afterwards King John. The' ways finest nearest the grate, and coarser all the lower part of its aneient castle is used for the gaol. way down. It is feated on the Tamer, 28 miles N. of Plys LAUNDRESS. n. fillavandiere, French: Skina mouth, and 214 W. by S. of London. Lon. 4.35. Her imagines that lavandarese may bave been the W. Lat. 50. 40. N.

old word.] A woman whose employment was to (3.)* TO LAUNCH.V. n. (It is derived by Skin- wash clothes. The countess of Richmond would ner from lance, because a ship is pushed into wa- often fay, On condition the princes of Christenter with great force.] 1. To force à vefsel into dom would march against the Turks, she would the fea.-Launch out into the deep, and let down willingly attend them, and be their laundress. Camyour nets for a draught. Ltike v. 4:

den.- Take up thefe clothes here quickly; carry So short a stay prevails;

them to the laundress in Datchet Mead. ShakHe soon equips the ship, fupplies the sails, The laundress muft be sure to tear her smocks in And gives the word to launch. Dryden. the washing, and yet wash them but half. Swift. -For general history, Raleigh and Howel are to * LAUNDRY. n. f. [as if lavanderie.] 1. The be had. He who would launch farther into the room in which clothes are washed. The affairs of ocean, may confult Whear. Locke. 2. To rove at the family ought to be consulted, whether they Large; to expatiate ; to make excursions.- concern the stable, dairy, the pantry, or laundry.

From hence that gen’ral care and study Swift. 2. The act or state of washing.–Chalky springs,

water is too fretting, as appeareth in laundry of That launching and progression of the mind. clothes, which wear out apace. Bacon.

Davies. LAUNOI, De, or John, D. D. a learned Fr. -Whoever pursues his own thoughts will find

LAUNOIUS, 3 divine, born in 1691. Inthem launch out beyond the extent of body, into stead of seeking ecclefiaftical preferment, he rethe infinity of space. Locke.-Spenser has not con- fused several good benefices. He devoted his time tented bimself with submissive imitation : he laun- chiefly to church history. In pursuit of this stuches out into very flowery paths, which still con. dy he took a journey to Rome, where he acquiduct him into one great road. Prior.--He had not red the esteem and friendship of Leo Allatius and acted in the character of a fuppliant, if 'he had Holstenius. He was a zealous defender of the lie launc bed out into a long oration. Broome.--I have berties of the Gallican church; and wrote against launched out of my subject on this article. Arbuth. legends and canonizations. His works make feve

(2.) * TO LAUNCH. v. a: 1. To push to sea. – ral large folio volumes. He lived in primitive simAll art is used to sink episcopacy, and launch pres- plicity, and died in 1678. bytery, in England. King Charles.

LAUNOY, a town of France, in the dep. of With stays and cordage Jast be rigg'd the ship, Ardennes, 102 miles SSW. of Mezieres, and 101 And roll'd on levers, launch'd her in the deep. NNE. of Rethel.

Pope. LAUNSDON, a village N. of Bath. 2. To dart from the hand. This perhaps, for LAUNU. See LAUN. distinction fake, might better be written lanch or LAVOISIER, Anthony Laurence, the great relance.

former of chemiftry, and in every view one of the The King of Heav'n, obscure on high, most eminent men of the 18th century, was born Bar'd his red arm, and launching from the sky at Paris, Aug. 16th, 1743. Being of a noble fami. His written bolt, not shaking empty fmoke, ly, he received a very liberal education, which he Down to the deep abyss the Aaming fellow improved by the most unremitted industry. , In ftrook.

Dryden. his 23d year, on the oth April, 1966, the Acade. (3.) TO LAUNCH, in the fea language, 1 2, def. my of Sciences presented him with a gold medal, 1.) fignifies to put out : as, Launch the ship, that for his Dissertation on the best mode of enlightening is, Put her out of dock; launch aft, or forward, the streets of a great city during the night. In 1768, speaking of things that are stowed in the hold, is, he was admitted a member of that learned socie. put them more forward ; launch ho! is a term used ty, to whofe service he chiefly devoted his scienwheo a yard is hoisted high enough, and signifies tific labours, and thus became one of its most acboif no more. See LANCH, s 2.

tive and useful associates. In these exertions, his (1.) * LAUND. 11. f. [lande, French ; lawn, attention was successively occupied with every Welí.] Lawn; a plain extended between woods. branch of physical and maihematical science. The Hanmer.

analysis of gypsum, the crystallization of salts, the Under this thick-grown brake we'll shroud supposed conversion of water into earth, the effects ourselves,

produced by the grande del:upe of the garden of For through this laund anon the deer will come; the Infanta, the congelation of water, the project And in this covert will we make our ftand. Shok. of brioging water from the Yvette to Paris, the

(2, 3.) LAUND, in geography, two English vil- phenomena of thunder and lightning, of the aulages, viz. 1. in Lancashire, E. of Garsang : 2. in rora borealis, of electricity, mineralogy, and eveNottinghamshire, E. of Blith.

ry other important object of experimental science, LAUNDER, in mineralogy, a name given in gave constant employment to the genius and ta

Rossa

lents of this great chemift. Journeys, in concert preliminary to the aftonishing revolution be with M. Guettard, through every province of brought about in the science. Finding that the France, enabled him to procure numerous mate- extenlive views he, bad opened, and the new rials for a proper description and arrangement of modes of operation and experiment he had prothe various genera and fpecies in the mineral king- posed, had excited universal inquiry, and created dom. These be arranged into a kind of Chart, a general expectation of still greater discoveries which served ås a ground-work for a more labori- and improvements, he pursued his labours with qus work on the Revolutions of the Globe, and the unremitted industry, exerted his genius in inventformation of Couches de la Terre; a work of which ing the most accurate instruments for his purposes, two beautiful sketches are to be seen in the Me- and employed the best artists to make them exactmoirs of the French Academy for 1972 and 1787. ly to his mind. He appropriated his fortune to All his time and fortune were devoted to the cul- the improvement of his favourite science, and spature of the sciences in general, nor did he seem to red no expense in the pursuit of this important have an attachment to one science more than to object. His houfe thus became a grand labora another, till one of those great events, which do not tory, in which nothing was wanting that could tend frequently occur, in the progress of science, di- to throw light on his experiments. He kept in rected his attention exclusively to chemiftry, in constant employment several of the most ingenithe cultivation of which he has fince acquired im. ous artisans, for the invention and conftru&ion mortal fame. About 1970, the important disco- of mathematical instruments, and other new and very of ELASTIC FLUIDS was just announced to expentive apparatus of every kind, superior in acthe public, and Messrs Black, Priestley, Caven. curacy to any formerly used. To these advanta dim, and M‘Bride, had opened a new mine for ges, derived from the proper application of his the exertions of genius, and the investigations of large fortune, Lavoisier added the infructive conphysiologists, when Lavoisier, struck with the im- versation of his learned friends, which he rendere portance of this discovery, and the influence it 'ed subfervient to his enlarged plan of the improvemust have upon the whole train of physical invel- ment of chemiftry. Twice a week he held in his tigations, perceived, by a kind of intuitive instinct, house philofophical assemblies, to which he invited the glorious profpect which opened to his view. every literary character, that was celebrated in geNo sooner had the discoveries of Dr Black and ometrical, chemical, and physical investigations. le Mr Cavendith (fee CHEMISTRY, Index) arrived these instructive conversations, discussions were rein France, than Lavoisier repeated and varied gularly held, similar to those that preceded the fift their experiments in every pollible manner; establishment of ACADEMIES; 'the opinions of the whereby be established and enlarged the refults most eminent literati in Europe were canvafled, drawn by the British chemists. Proceeding thus the moft new and striking paliages in the works from one process to another, putting no confi- of foreign authors were quoted and discussed, and dence in any former theories, but trusting solely modern theories were inveftigated and tried by the to experiments supported by clear facts, error and touch-stone of experiment. To thefe affemblies prejudice fed before bim, and he became the the literati of all nations found a ready admiffion; founder of an entire new system of chemistry, the and Priestley, Watt, Bolton, Blagden, Fontana, incontrovertible truth of which, as well as its fuc. Jacquin, Ingenhousz, Landriani, and other illoscess, will be fufficient to eternize his fame and his trious phyfiologists of Great Britain, Germany, memory, as long as the fciences thall be cultivated. and Italy, mingled in the fame company with BerLavoisier's great objects being to illustrate facts al. thollet, Monge, Borda, Cousin, Laplace, Laready published, and to investigate and announce grange, Guyton, Meunier, and Vandermonde. new discoveries, he compared and collated his ob. At these learned interviews no fubject was left fervations, and reduced them into a regular fyfo, uninvestigated, that could contribute to the imtem. In the end of 1775 he presented to the Aca. provement of science, or the amelioration of the demy his first chemical work, entitled, New Ex- ftate of human society. One great advantage reperiments relative to the Existence of a fixed elastic fulting from these meetings, the influence of which Auid in certain substances, and to the phenomena soon reached the academy itself, was the agreewhich result from its fixation or disengagement. ment established between the natural philosophers This work came out at Paris just about the fame and the geometricians; the philofophical method time that Dr Priestley's treatise on the different spe and precision of style of the latter being infenfibly cies of air appeared at London ; and though it transfused into the former, and the philosophers may be considered rather as a syllabus, or outline, becoming thus gradually disciplined in the tactics than a complete treatise, yet it was executed with of the geometricians. In the assemblage of such so much perspicuity, and his processes were de a constellation of fcientific lights, Lavoisier improscribed in it with so much exactoets and accuracy, ved and embellished his own great talents. To that it surpassed every former publication of the the critical examination of thele philosophers be kind. The new principles contained, and the submitted the results of his most important espenew methods of operation proporet in it, at lait riments, and invited his critical friends to state changed the very appearance and language of che- the most weighty objections that occurred to mistry, and operated an entire revolution in the them; nor did he venture to announce any of his fcience. Lavoisier quickly became, in chemistry, dikoveries to the public, till they had undergone what NEWTON, KEPLER and EULER, were in this literary ordeal. Thus Lavoiher became the mathematics, the centre of all discoveries and re-founder of the French Chemical School, the diftincsearches made on the fubject of elastic fluids, from tive character of which is, a close and mathema1774 to 1792. His firit publication was only tical mode of reasoning in theory, combined with

a rigid attention to facts in conduěting experi- under Robespierre, murdered many of the great: ments. This school, in which every individual eft and best men in France (and thus paved the was both tutor and pupil, lasted from 1976 to 1992; way for the ufurpation of that defpotic power but the period when it flourished in its greatest now exercised by Bonaparte), he was condemned vigour, was between 1980 and 1788. This pe- to be guillotined. The bloody fentence was exeriod was marked by the most important discove- cuted on the 9th May 1794, to the infinite regret ries, and the most itriking alterations were made of every friend to' virtue, science, and humanity. both in the foundation and superstructure, the The sanguinary monfters, with barbarity worse doctrine and language of chemistry. (See CHE- than Gothic, refused to allow this great man the MISTRY, Index.) Ancient and baseless theories short respite of 14 days, to finish an important were exploded, the ideal doctrine of PHLOGIS- experiment in chemistry. TON vanished before the decisive proofs of expe- —Quis, talia fando, riment, and the new system of PNEUMATICS was Temperet a lacrymis ? completely established. Although Lavoisier, in LAVOISIERTAN SYSTEM. See CHEMISTRY, Ind. this great revolution of science, was affifted by * LAVOLTA. n. f. [la volte, French.) An old many of the most eminent chemists of the age, yet dance, in which was much turning and much cato him exclusively is due the honour of being the pering. Hanmer.founder of it ; his own genius was his sole con

I cannot fing, ductor, and the talents of his associates were on- Nor heel the high lavolt; nor sweeten talk; ly rendered subservient to the completion of his Nor play at fubtle games.

Shak. comprehensive plan, by his own meritorious ex- LAVONCOURT, a town of France, in the ertions. In the 20 vole. published by the Academy dep. of Upper Saone, 10 miles E. of Champlitte, of Sciences, between 1973 and 1793, there are 40 and 12 S. of Jussey. memoirs drawn up by Lavoisier, replete with all (1.) LAVONIA, a town of Naples, in Calabria the most important phenomena of the science: Citra, 8 miles WSW. of Rofano. the doctrine of COMBUSTION; the nature and (2.) LAVONTA, a town of Naples, in Calabria analyfis of ATMOSPHERICAL air, the formation Ultra, 14 miles W. of Squillace. and fixation of ELASTIC FLUIDS; the properties LAVORA, or TERRA DI LAVORA, a province of caloric, or the matter ci HEAT; the compofi- LAVORO, S of Naples, bounded on the N. by tion of ACIDS ; the augmentation of the PONDE- the two Abruzzos; E. by Molise ; E. and S. bý ROSITY of burnt bodies; the decomposition and Principato Ultra ; S. by the Gulf of Naples; and recomposition of WATER; the diffolution of MB- w. by the Mediterranean and Campagna di RoTALS; VEGETATION, FERMENTATION and ANI. ma. Geographers differ about its extent. Dr MALIZATION. (See these articles, and CHEMIS- Brookes and John Walker make it 63 miles long, TRY, Index.) For upwards of 15 years did La- and 35 broad; but the Rev. Clement Cruttwell voitier pursue his chemical experiments and difco- says, it is “ about 140 miles in length, and 33 veries, without making a single false ftep ; at laft, where broadest." It is populous, and fertile in in 1789, he published his Elements of Chemistry, corn, wine, oil, fruits, &c. It was anciently callwhich presented the science in a form entirely ed Campania, and in the middle ages, the Caftelnew, and completely distinguished the discoveries lany of Capua; but in 1091 was named Lavora, and improvements of Lavoisier from those of Dr by Richard II. prince of Capua and the Normans, Priestley, and all former chemists. Numerous from its fitness for culture. NAPLES is the were the services rendered by Lavoisier, both in capital. It abounds with fulphur and mineral his public and private character, to trade and ma- waters. nufactures, to arts and sciences; as well as to the LAUPEN, a town of Switzerland, in the can. cause of liberty, before it degenerated into licenti- ton of Berne ; s miles SW. of Berne. ousness and anarchy. Nor should his private and LAUR, a river of Germany, in the circle of domestic virtues be omitted : as a friend, relative, Franconia, running into the Saal, 3 miles N. of husband, and parent, his conduct was exemplary. Munnertadt. In his manners he was unaffectedly plain and fim- (3.) LAURA, in church history, a collection of ple; in acts of beneficence and generosity, uo- little cells at some distance from each other, in bounded. Many young men, excited by genius which the hermits in ancient times lived together and inclination to court the sciences, but deficient in a wildernefs. These hermits did not live in in the means, were liberally supplied by him with community, but each monk provided for himself pecuniary aid; and many unfortunate individuals in his diftinct cell. The moft celebrated lauras were relieved in private without the oftentation of mentioned in ecclefiaftical history were in Palefbenevolence. In the communes of the depart. tine: as the laura of St Euthymus, at four or five ment of Loir and Cher, where he was poffeffed leagues distance from Jerusalem; the laura of St of several considerable estates, he often vifited the Saba, near the brook Cedron; the laura of the cottages of the indigent, and relieved their distref Towers, near the river Jordan, &c. fes. At lait this virtuous and truly great man, af- (2.) LAURA, the celebrated mistress of Petrarolt, ter having been repeatedly elected by his fellow- was born in 1310, at Avignon, and married to citizens, a member of the National Aflembly and Hugh de Sades See PETRARCH. She died of National Convention, and a commissioner of the the plague in 1348, aged 38. National Treasury, &c. was falsely accused of be- (:) LAURA, in ancient geography, a town of ing an accomplice in a plot to favour the success of Egypt, Dear Alexandria. the enemies of the republic ; and being brought LAVRA, a town of Ruflia ; 36 miles NE. of before that bloody revolutionary tribunal, which, Moscow.

LAURAC,

LAURAC, or LAURAC LE GRAND, a town of rhetorical degree at Oxford. He was a secular France, in the dep. of Aude; s miles S. of Caltel- priest, and emitent for his various treatises in naudary, and 16 W. of Carcassone.

grammar, and for his facility in Latin poetry; LAURADIO, a town of Portugal, in Efrema- having exercised his art many years, and fubdura; on the S. fide of the Tagus; 6 miles SSE. mitting to the customary demand of 100 verses, of Lisbon.

he was honoured with the laurel in the year 1912. LAURAGAIS, a ci-devant territory of France, With regard to the poet laureate of the kings of in the late prov. of Upper Languedoc, now in- England, he is undoubtedly the same that is fiyled cluded in the dep. of Aude. Castelnaudary was the king's verfifier, and to whom 100 shiliings the capital,

were paid as his annual ftipend in the year 1251. (1.)* LAUREATE. adj. [laureatus, Latin.] But when or how that title commenced, and whe. Decked or invested with a laurel.

ther this officer was ever solemnly crowned with Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, laurel at his first inveftiture, I will not pretend to And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, determine, after the fearches of the learned Sel. To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. den on this question have proved unsuccessful. It

Milton. feems most probable, that the barbarous and in. Soft on her lap her laureate fon reclines. glorious name of verhfier gradually gave way to

Popes an appellation of more elegance and dignity: or (2.) LAUREATE, n. f. or Poet LAUREATE, an rather, that at length those only were in general officer of the household of the kings of Britain, invited to this appointment, who had received whose bufiness consists only in composing an ode academical sanction, and had merited a crown of annually on his majesty's birth-day, and on the laurel in the universities for their abilities in Latin new year; sometimes also, though rarely, on oc- composition, particularly Latin versification. Thus cafion of any remarkable victory.-Of the first in the king's laureate was nothing more than 'a greftitution of poets laureate, Mr Wharton has given duated rhetorician employed in the service of the the followiog account in his History of English Poe- king. That he originally wrote in Latin, appears try: “Great confusion has entered into this fub- from the ancient title verfificator : and may

be ject, on account of the degrees in grammar, which moreover collected from the two Latín poems, included rhetoric and verfification, anciently ta. which Baston and Guielmus, who appear to base ken in our universities, particularly at Oxford: on respectively acted in the capacity of royal poets to which occafion, a wreath of laurel was presented Richard J. and Edward II. officially composed ob to the new graduate, who was afterwards usually Richard's crusade, and Edward's fiege of Striveftyled Poeta Laureatus. These scholastic laurea- ling castle. And. Bernard, fucceffively poet-lautions, however, seem to have given rise to the ap- reate of Hen. VII. and VIII. affords a ftill ftronger pellation in question. I will give some instances proof that this officer was a Latin scholar. He was at Oxford, which at the same time will explain a native of Thoulouse and an Auguftine monk, He the nature of the ftudies for which our academical was not only the king's poet-laureate, as it is fupphilologists received their rewards. About the posed, but his historiographer, and preceptor in year 1470, one John Watson, à ftudent in gram- grammar to Prince Arthur. He obtained many ec. mar, obtained a concession to be graduated and clefiaftical preferments in England. All the pieces Jaureated in that science; on condition that he now to be found in character of poet-laureate are composed 100 Latin verses in praise of the univer- in Latin. These are, “ An Address to Henry VIII. fity, and a Latin comedy. Another grammarian for the most auspicious beginning of the oth year was distinguished with the same badge, after having of his reign, with an Epithalamium on the war. ftipulated, that, at the next public act, he would riage of Francis the dauphin of France with the affix the same number of hexameters on the great king's daughter;" A New Year's Gifi for the gates of St Mary's church, that they might be 1515; and, Verses wishing profperity to his waseen by the whole university. This was at that jesty's 13th year. He has left fome Latin hymns; period the most convenient mode of publication. and many of his profe pieces, which he wrote in About the fame time, one Maurice Byrchensaw, the quality of historiographer to both monarchs, a scholar in rhetoric, fupplicated to be admitted are remaining. I am of opinion that it was not to read lectures, that is, to take a degree in that customary for the royal laureate to write in Ecfaculty; and his petition was granted, with a pro- glish, till the reformation of religion had begun to vision, that he should write 100 verses on the glo diminith the veneration for the Latin language; ry of the university, and not suffer Ovid's Art of or, rather, till the love of novelty, and a better Love, and the Elegies of Pamphilius, to be studied sense of things, had banithed the narrow pedanin auditory. Not long afterwards, one John Bal tries of monaftic erudition, and taught us to culman, another rhetorician, having complied with tivate our native tongue.' the terms impofed, of explaining the firit book of * LAUREATION. n. fi [from laureate.] It Tully's Offices, and likewise the firft of his Epif- denotes, in the Scottish univerfities, the act of tles, without any pecuniary emolument, was gra- ftate of having degrees conferred, as they have in duated in rhetoric; and a crown of laurel was fome of them a Rowery crown, in imitation of publicly placed on his head by the chancellor of laurel among the ancients. the university. About the year 1489, Skelton was (1.) * LAUREL n. l. (laura's, Lat. laurier, Fr.) laureated at Oxford, and in the year 1493. was A tree, called also the cherry bay.-The laurus or permitted to wear his laurel at Cambridge. Ro- laured of the ancients is affirmed by naturalifts to bert Whittington affords the last instance of a be what we call the bay trce. Ainsworth.

The