LECONTE
LEFEVEE
to conciliate ; not to any wavering of
Lecky s Agnosticism. His chief work is
his History of England in the Eighteenth
Century (8 vols., 1878-90). Besides other
slight works, including two volumes of
poems, he wrote Democracy and Liberty
(2 vols., 1896) and The Map of Life (1899).
In 1892 he declined the appointment of
Eegius professor of modern history at
Oxford. He became M.P. for Dublin
University in 1895, and Privy Councillor
in 1897 ; and he received the Order of
Merit in 1902. D. Oct. 22, 1903.
LECONTE, Professor Joseph, M.D., American geologist. B. Feb. 26, 1823. Ed. Franklin College, New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Harvard University. He had already practised medicine for three years when he went to Harvard to study medicine under Agassiz. In 1851 he became professor of natural science at Oglethorpe, and in 1852 at Franklin College. He was professor of chemistry and geology at South Carolina College from 1857 to 1869, then professor of geology and natural history at California University until his death. His Elements of Geology (1878) is still used in America. Leconte is much quoted by some Christian writers, but he was not even an orthodox Theist. In his Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought (1888) he accepts the title " Pantheist " (p. 284), discards revela tion and miracles, and says that there is "no test of truth but reason" (p. 310). His Autobiography was published in 1903. D. June 6, 1901.
LECONTE DE LISLE, Charles Marie Rene, French poet. B. Oct. 23, 1818. He settled in Paris, after travel in the East, in 1846, adopted the views of Fourier, and took part in the 1848 Revolution. He afterwards abandoned Fourierism for a Pantheistic philosophy, and became one of the first French poets of the period. His Poemes antiques (1852), Poesies nou- velles (1854), and beautiful translations of Theocritus, Anacreon, Hesiod, Homer, and 433
-ZEschylus made him famous, and opened
the doors of the Academy. In his Poemes
barbares (1862) he repeatedly rejects immor
tality (" Divine mort, ou tout rentre et
s efface," etc.) and a personal God. Mr.
Robertson describes him as " one of the
most convinced and aggressive freethinkers
of the century." D. July 17, 1894.
LE DANTEC, Professor Felix Alex- andre, French biologist. B. 1869. Ed. Paris (under Pasteur and Metchnikoff). After teaching for some years at Lyons, he was appointed professor of general biology at the Sorbonne. During the War he wore himself out in the hospitals and brought on a fatal illness. Le Dantec was a brilliant and stimulating writer on biology, though only one of his works (The Nature and Origin of Life, 1907) appeared in English. He had " a passion for veracity " and a strong repugnance to " superstitious senti- mentalism, metaphysical verbiage, and intellectual hypocrisy " (Nature, Aug. 16, 1917). He was an Agnostic, accepting only " the mysterious and universal agent which we call energy " (Atheisme, 1906). D. June 6, 1917.
LEE, Charles, American commander.
B. 1731. Ed. Bury St. Edmunds Grammar School, and Switzerland. Son of Major- General Lee of the British army, he adopted his father s profession, served in America and Portugal, and reached the rank of major. In 1764 he passed to the Polish army, and in 1773 settled in America. He was a major-general in the American army in the War of Independence, and in 1776 he was second in command to Washington. General Lee was a Deist (see Memoir of
C. Lee, appended to The Correspondence of Sir T. Hanmer, 1838, pp. 475-78). D. Oct. 2, 1782.
" LEE, Yernon." See PAGET, VIOLET.
LEFEYRE, Andre, French poet. B. Nov. 9, 1834. Ed. Ecole de Chartres. He entered the Imperial Archives, but at an 434
