LAYTON
LECKY
joined the Turkish Embassy in 1842, and
three years later the Ambassador employed
him to explore the ruins of Nineveh (Nineveh
and its Bemains, 1848). In 1849 he was
appointed attache, but he continued his
explorations, which are of prime importance
in the history of archaeology. He entered
Parliament in 1852, and was Under
secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1853 and
1861- 68. In 1868 he became Chief Com
missioner of Works, and was called to the
Privy Council. Later in the same year he
went as Ambassador to Madrid, passing in
1877 to Constantinople. In his Auto
biography (1903) Sir Austen says that the
discourses of W. J. Fox at South Place
and the conversation of Crabb Eobinson
" rapidly undermined the religious opinions
in which I had been brought up, and I soon
became as independent in my religious as
I had already become in my political
opinions " (i, 56). For this, he says, he
" ever felt grateful " to Fox and Eobinson.
In 1853 he wrote : " The best thing the
Turks could do would be to turn all the
Christians out of Jerusalem " (ii, 200).
He scorned the identifications of " Holy
Places." D. July 5, 1894.
LAYTON, Henry, writer. B. 1622. Ed. Oxford. It is known only that he was the son of a Yorkshire gentleman, and that he entered Gray s Inn and was called to the Bar. Between 1692 and 1704 he published, anonymously, a series of quarto pamphlets (Search After Souls, etc.) in which he denied the immortality of the soul, and he brought upon himself a violent controversy. It is curious that he believed in the divinity and second coming of Christ. D. Oct. 18, 1705.
LAZARUS, Professor Moritz, German philosopher. B. Sep. 15, 1824. From 1860 to 1867 he was professor of philosophy at Berne, and in 1873 he became professor of philosophy at Berlin University. Pro fessor Lazarus presided at the first and second Israelitic Synods, but he was quite outside Judaism in the dogmatic sense (see 431
Professor Lazarus als religioser Beformator,
1887). He followed Herbart, wrote Das
Leben der Seele (3 vols., 1883) and many
other philosophical works, and was one of
the founders of " Folk- Psychology." D.
Apr. 13, 1903.
LE BON, Gustave, M.D., French socio logist. B. 1841. Ed. Paris. Although he graduated in medicine, he devoted him self to writing on medical and anthropo logical subjects. One of his early works was crowned by the Academy of Sciences and the Anthropological Society, and he made a research mission to India on behalf of the Government. His chief works at this stage were L homme et les societes (2 vols., 1881), Les lois psychologiques de revolution des peuples (1894), and his well- known Psychology of the Croivd (Eng. trans., 1895). Later he devoted himself to physics, and attracted much attention by his thoroughly Rationalistic Evolution of Matter (Eng. trans., 1907) and Evolution of Force (Eng. trans., 1908). Le Bon is an Officer of the Legion of Honour, member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, etc. See E. Picard, G. Le Bonte son ceuvre (1909).
LECKY, The Right Honourable William Edward Hartpole, O.M., M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., Litt.D., historian. B. Mar. 26, 1838. Ed. private schools, Cheltenham, and Trinity College, Dublin. In youth he took a warm interest in theology, and proposed to enter the ministry ; but his Beligious Tendencies of the Age (1860) shows that his views were early modified. His Declining Sense of the Miraculous (1863), later incorporated in his History of nationalism (2 vols., 1865), was completely Rationalistic, and its suc cess persuaded him to embark on a literary career at London. His History of European Morals (2 vols.) was published in 1869, and was an even greater literary success, though its tendency to flatter Christianity, in despite of the facts it records, gave offence to many Rationalists. The ten dency was due merely to policy, or a desire 432
