LENBACH
LEOPARDI
1848, and he joined in the struggle at
the barricades. He studied law, and was
admitted to the American Bar in 1851 ;
but he preferred to devote himself to letters
and journalism. His Hans Breitmann s
Barty (1856) made him known throughout
America as one of the leading humorists.
The Hans Breitmann Ballads were ulti
mately published in five volumes (1867-70).
He translated Heine, wrote a life of Lincoln
(1879), published several volumes of serious
verse, and was a remarkably good linguist
and man of wide culture. In his Memoirs
(2 vols., 1893) he frequently expends his
wit on Christianity. He pokes fun at " the
grandeur of monotheistic trinitarianism "
(ii, 189), and is occasionally very disdainful
(ii, 272-73). His own frame of mind he
describes as " a warring of superstitious
feelings and scientific convictions " (ii, 200).
D. Mar. 20, 1903.
LENBACH, Franz von, German painter. B. Dec. 13, 1836. Ed. Augsburg, and Munich Academy. In 1857 he went as a pupil with Piloty to Rome, and from 1860 he taught in the Weimar Art School for a few years. Lenbach was especially devoted to portrait painting, under the inspiration of the models of Rembrandt and Velasquez; and the fineness of his colouring and his power of portraying character put him at the head of his branch of art in Germany. He was ennobled by the Prince Regent of Bavaria, and had many gold medals and orders. One of the best of his portraits is that of Professor Haeckel, with whom he agreed. D. May 5, 1904.
LEON, Sir Herbert Samuel, first Baronet, third Chairman of the Rationalist Press Association. B. Feb. 11, 1850. Ed. privately. Sir Herbert has been occupied throughout life with financial business, and occupies a high position in the financial world. He was M.P. for the Northern Division of Buckinghamshire from 1891 to 1895, and is an Alderman of the Bucks County Council and Chairman of the Finance Committee. He was created 437
Baronet in 1911. He has retired from
business, and is a zealous and generous
supporter of the cause of enlightenment.
LEON, Professor Nicola, Ph.D.,
Rumanian parasitologist. B. 1864. Ed. Jassy and Jena Universities. Leon is pro fessor of parasitology at Jassy University, and one of the most distinguished Ration alists of Rumania. He is a member of the English Zoological Society, the Paris Entomological Society, and other learned bodies, and is a high authority on insects and parasites. In Was Wir Ernst Haeckel Verdanken (1914, ii, 73) he pays one of the highest tributes to his old master, and rejoices that he has " freed millions of men from the chains of philosophic and theo logical mysticism." Professor Leon was a member of the Commission for the Reform of Rumanian Schools in 1899, and he boasts that he " introduced the study of Darwinism and Haeckelism " into the schools of his country.
LEOPARDI, Count Giacomo, Italian poet. B. June 29, 1798. Leopardi was so fascinated in boyhood by classical litera ture that he had read nearly the whole of the Latin and Greek writers before he was seventeen. Overwork and the painful spectacle of Papal Italy in comparison with the splendour of pagan Rome brought on a mood of melancholy which appears in his earliest poetry (Ode to Italy, 1818). In 1822 Niebuhr tried to attract him to the new Berlin University, but he declined. His orthodox father was very hostile to his studies and sentiments, which increased his pessimism, and in 1825 he left home and devoted himself to letters. He colla borated on the Florence Antologia, and edited the works of Petrarch. Although he published only about forty poems, he is counted one of Italy s great poets. There have been innumerable studies of Leopardi and many editions of his works. In the last year of his life he denied, in a letter, that his pessimistic philosophy was due to suffering. He refused to seek consolation " in frivolous 438
