VOLUME XVI SLICE I L to Lamellibranchia (continued 9)

Seeing his way thus barred at Alcalá, he went with his companions to Salamanca. Here the Dominicans, doubting the orthodoxy of the new-comers, had them put into prison, where they were chained foot to foot and fastened to a stake set up in the middle of the cell. Some days afterwards Ignatius was examined and found without fault. His patience won him many friends; and when he and his companions remained in prison while the other prisoners managed to escape, their conduct excited much admiration. After twenty-two days they were called up to receive sentence. No fault was found in their life and teaching; but they were forbidden to define any sins as being mortal or venial until they had studied for four years. Hampered again by such an order, Ignatius determined to go to Paris to continue his studies. Up to the present he was far from having any idea of founding a society. The only question before him now was whether he should join an order, or continue his wandering existence. He decided upon Paris for the present, and before leaving Salamanca he agreed with his companions that they should wait where they were until he returned; for he only meant to see whether he could find any means by which they all might give themselves to study. He left Barcelona and, travelling on foot to Paris, he arrived there in February 1528. The university of Paris had reached its zenith at the time of the council of Constance (1418), and was now losing its intellectual leadership under the attacks of the Renaissance and the Reformation. In 1521 the university had condemned Luther’s Babylonish Captivity, and in 1527 Erasmus’s Colloquies met with the same fate. Soon after his arrival, Ignatius may have seen in the Place de Grève the burning of Louis de Berquin for heresy.1 At this period there were between twelve and fifteen thousand students attending the university, and the life was an extraordinary mixture of licentiousness and devout zeal. When Ignatius arrived in Paris, he lodged at first with some fellow-countrymen; and for two years attended the lectures on humanities at the collège de Montaigu, supporting himself at first by the charity of Isabella Roser; but, a fellow-lodger defrauding him of his stock, he found himself destitute and compelled to beg his bread. He retired to the hospice of St Jacques; and, following the advice of a Spanish monk, spent his vacations in Flanders, where he was helped by the rich Spanish merchants. At Bruges he became acquainted with the famous Spanish scholar, Juan Luis Vives, with whom he lodged. In the summer of 1530 he went to London, where he received alms more abundantly than elsewhere. As he could only support himself at Paris with difficulty, it was impossible to send for his companions in Salamanca. Others, however, joined him in Paris, and to some of them he gave the Spiritual Exercises, with the result that the Inquisition made him give up speaking on religious subjects during the time he was a student. At the end of 1529 he came into contact with the men who were eventually to become the first fathers of the Society of Jesus. He won over the Savoyard Pierre Lefèvre (Faber), whose room he shared, and the Navarrese Francis Xavier, who taught philosophy in the college of St Barbara. Afterwards he became acquainted with the young Castilian, Diego Laynez, who had heard of him at Acalá and found him out in Paris. With Laynez came two other young men, the Toledan Alfonso Salmeron and the Portuguese Simon Rodriguez. Nicholas Bobadilla, a poor Spaniard who had finished his studies, was the next to join him. The little company of seven determined to consecrate their union by vows. On the 15th of August 1534, the Feast of the Assumption, they assembled in the crypt of the church of St Mary on Montmartre, and Faber, the only one who was a priest, said Mass. They then took the vows of poverty and chastity, and pledged themselves to go to the Holy Land as missionaries or for the purpose of tending the sick; or if this design should prove impracticable, to go to Rome and place themselves at the disposal of the pope for any purpose. But, whatever may have been the private opinion of Ignatius, there was on this occasion no foundation of any society. The vows were individual obligations which could be kept quite apart from membership in a society. A provision was made that if, after waiting a year at Venice, they were unable to go to Jerusalem, this part of the vow should be cancelled and they should at once betake themselves to Rome.

At this time Ignatius was again suffering from his former imprudent austerities; and he was urged to return for a while to his native air. He left Paris for Spain in the autumn of 1535, leaving Faber in charge of his companions to finish their studies. During the absence of Ignatius, Faber gained three more adherents. But before leaving Paris Ignatius heard once more that complaints had been lodged against him at the Inquisition; but these like the others were found to be without any foundation. When he arrived near Loyola he would not go to the castle, but lived at the public hospice at Azpeitia, and began his usual life of teaching Christian doctrine and reforming morals. Falling ill again he went to other parts of Spain to transact business for his companions. Then, sailing from Valencia to Genoa, he made his way to Venice, where he arrived during the last days of 1535. Here he waited for a year until his companions could join him, and meanwhile he occupied himself in his usual good works, gaining several more companions and meeting Giovanni Piero Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV., who had lately founded the Theatines. What happened between the two does not appear; but henceforth Caraffa seems to have borne ill will towards Ignatius and his companions. At Venice Ignatius was again accused of heresy, and it was said that he had escaped from the Inquisition in Spain and had been burnt in effigy at Paris. These charges he met successfully by insisting that the nuncio should thoroughly inquire into the matter.

After a journey of fifty-four days his companions arrived at Venice in January 1537; and here they remained until the beginning of Lent, when Ignatius sent them to Rome to get money for the proposed voyage to Palestine. He himself stayed behind, as he feared that, if he went with them, Caraffa at Rome, together with Dr Ortiz, a German opponent in Paris and now Charles V.’s ambassador at the Vatican, would prejudice the pope against them. But Ortiz proved a friend and presented them to Paul III., who gave them leave to go to Palestine to preach the Gospel, bestowing upon them abundant alms. He likewise gave licence for those not yet priests to be ordained by any catholic bishop on the title of poverty. They had returned to Venice where Ignatius and the others were ordained priests on the 24th of June 1537, after having renewed their vows of poverty and chastity to the legate Verallo. Ignatius, now a priest, waited for eighteen months before saying Mass, which he did for the first time on the 25th of December 1538 in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

The year of waiting passed away without any chance of going to the Holy Land. Finding it impossible to keep this part of their vow, the fathers met at Vicenza, where Ignatius was staying in a ruined monastery; and here after deliberation it was determined that he, Laynez and Faber should go to Rome to place the little band at the disposal of the pope. It was now that the Society began to take some visible form. A common rule was devised and a name adopted. Ignatius declared that having assembled in the name of Jesus, the association should henceforth bear the name of the “Company of Jesus.” The word used shows Loyola’s military ideal of the duties and methods of the nascent society.

On the road to Rome a famous vision took place, as to which we have the evidence of Ignatius himself. In a certain church, a few miles before Rome, whilst in prayer he was aware of a stirring and a change in his soul; and so openly did he see God the Father placing him with Christ, that he could not dare to doubt that God the Father had so placed him. Subsequent writers add that Christ, looking at him with a benign countenance, said: “I shall be propitious to you”; while others add the significant words, “at Rome.” Ignatius, however, says nothing about so important a matter; indeed he understood the vision to mean that many things would be adverse to them, and told his companions when they reached the city that he saw the windows there closed against him. He also said: “We must of necessity proceed with caution; and we must not make the acquaintance of women unless they be of very high rank.” They arrived in Rome in October 1537; and lived at first in a little cottage in a vineyard and near the Trinità dei Monti. The pope appointed Faber to teach Holy Scripture, and Laynez scholastic theology, in the university of the Sapienza. Ignatius was left free to carry on his spiritual work, which became so large that he was obliged to call his other companions to Rome. During the absence of the pope, a certain hermit began to spread heresy and was opposed by Ignatius and his companions. In revenge the hermit brought up the former accusations concerning the relations to the Inquisition, and proclaimed Ignatius and his friends to be false, designing men and no better than concealed heretics. The matter was examined and the legate ordered the suit to be quashed. But this did not suit Ignatius. It was necessary for his own good repute and the future of his work that a definitive sentence should be pronounced and his name cleared once and for all. The legate demurred; but on the pope’s return sentence was formally given in his favour.

The life of Ignatius is now mainly identified with the formation and growth of his Society (see Jesuits), but his zeal found other outlets in Rome. He founded institutions for rescuing fallen women, started orphanages and organized catechetical instructions. He obtained, after difficulty, the official recognition of his Society from Paul III. on the 27th of September 1540, and successfully steered it through many perils that beset it in its early days. He was unanimously elected the first general in April 1541; and on the 22nd of that month received the first vows of the Society in the church of San Paolo fuori la mura. Two works now chiefly occupied the remainder of his life: the final completion of the Spiritual Exercises and the drawing up of the Constitutions, which received their final form after his death. These two are so constantly connected that the one cannot be understood without the other. The Constitutions are discussed in the article on the Jesuits. In these he taught his followers to respond to the call; by the Spiritual Exercises he moulded their character.

The Book of the Spiritual Exercises has been one of the world-moving books. In its strict conception it is only an application of the Gospel precepts to the individual soul. Its object is to convince a man of sin, of justice and of judgment. The idea of the book is not original to Ignatius At Montserrato he had found in use a popular translation of the Exercitatorio de la vida spiritual (1500), written in Latin by Abbot Garcias de Cisneros (d. 1510), and divided into three ways or periods during which purity of soul, enlightenment and union are to be worked for; a fourth part is added on contemplation. This book evidently afforded the root idea of the Ignatian and more famous book. But the differences are great. While taking the title, the idea of division by periods and the subjects of most of the meditations from the older work, Ignatius skilfully adapted it to his own requirements. Above all the methods of the two are essentially different. The Benedictine work follows the old monastic tradition of the direct intercourse of the soul with God. Ignatius, with his military instinct and views of obedience, intervenes with a director who gives the exercises to the person who in turn receives them. If this introduction of the director is essential to the end for which Ignatius framed his Exercises, in it we also find dangers. A director, whose aim is only the personal advantage of the one who is receiving the exercises, will be the faithful interpreter of his founder’s intentions: but in the case of one whose esprit de corps is unbalanced, the temporary and pecuniary advantage of the Society may be made of more importance than that of the exercitant. Another danger may come when minuteness of direction takes away the wholesome sense of responsibility. Apart from these abuses the Spiritual Exercises have proved their value over and over again, and have received the sincerest form of flattery in countless imitations. The original parts of the book are principally to be found in the meditations, which are clearly Ignatian in conception as well as method. These are The Reign of Christ, wherein Christ as an earthly king calls his subjects to war: and Two Standards, one of Jesus Christ and the other of Lucifer. Besides these there are various additions to the series of meditations, which are mostly the practical results of the experiences which Ignatius went through in the early stages of his conversion. He gives various methods of prayer; methods of making an election; his series of rules for the discernment of spirits; rules for the distribution of alms and the treatment of scruples; tests of orthodoxy. These additions are skilfully worked into the series of meditations; so that when the exercitant by meditation has moved his soul to act, here are practical directions at hand.

The exercises are divided into four series of meditations technically called “weeks,” each of which may last as long as the director considers necessary to achieve the end for which each week is destined. But the whole period is generally concluded in the space of a month. The first week is the foundation, and has to do with the consideration of the end of man, sin, death, judgment and hell. Having purified the soul from sin and obtained a detestation thereof, the second week treats of the kingdom of Christ, and is meant to lead the soul to make an election of the service of God. The third and fourth weeks are intended to confirm the soul in the new way chosen, to teach how difficulties can be overcome, to inflame it with the love of God and to help it to persevere.

The Book of the Spiritual Exercises was not written at Manresa, although there is in that place an inscription testifying to the supposed fact. Ignatius was constantly adding to his work as his own personal experience increased, and as he watched the effects of his method on the souls of those to whom he gave the exercises. The latest critics, even those of the Society itself, give 1548 as the date when the book received its final touches; though Father Roothaan gives Rome, the 9th of July 1541, as the date at the end of the ancient MS. version. Ignatius wrote originally in Spanish, but the book was twice translated into Latin during his lifetime. The more elegant version (known as the common edition) differs but slightly from the Spanish. Francisco Borgia, while duke of Gandia, petitioned Paul III. to have the book examined and approved. The pope appointed censors for both translations, who found the work to be replete with piety and holiness, highly useful and wholesome. Paul III. on receiving this report confirmed it on the 31st of July 1548 by the breve Pastoralis officii cura. This book, which is rightly called the spiritual arm of the Society, was the first book published by the Jesuits.

The progress of the Society of Jesus in Loyola’s lifetime was rapid (see Jesuits). Having always had an attraction for a life of prayer and retirement, in 1547 he tried to resign the generalship, and again in 1550, but the fathers unanimously opposed the project. One of his last trials was to see in 1556 the election as pope of his old opponent Caraffa, who soon showed his intention of reforming certain points in the Society that Ignatius considered vital. But at this difficult crisis he never lost his peace of mind. He said: “If this misfortune were to fall upon me, provided it happened without any fault of mine, even if the Society were to melt away like salt in water, I believe that a quarter of an hour’s recollection in God would be sufficient to console me and to re-establish peace within me.” It is clear that Ignatius never dreamed of putting his Society before the church nor of identifying the two institutions.

In the beginning of 1556 Ignatius grew very weak and resigned the active government to three fathers, Polanco, Madrid and Natal. Fever laid hold of him, and he died somewhat suddenly on the 31st of July 1556, without receiving or asking for the last sacraments. He was beatified in 1609 by Paul V. and canonized in 1628 by Gregory XV. His body lies under the altar in the north transept of the Gesù in Rome.

His portrait is well known. The olive complexion, a face emaciated by austerities, the large forehead, the brilliant and small eyes, the high bald head tell their own tale. He was of medium height and carried himself so well that his lameness was hardly noticeable. His character was naturally impetuous and enthusiastic, but became marked with great self-control as he gradually brought his will under his reason. There was always that love of overcoming difficulty inherent in a chivalrous nature; and this also accounts for that desire of surpassing every one else that marked his early days. Whilst other Christians, following St Paul, were content to do all things for the glory of God, Ignatius set himself and his followers to strive after the greater glory. Learning by his own experience and errors, he wisely developed a sovereign prudence which nicely adjusted means to the end in view. He impressed on his followers the doctrine that in all things the end was to be considered. Never would Ignatius have countenanced so perverted an idea as that the end justified the means, for with his spiritual light and zeal for God’s glory he saw clearly that means in themselves unjust were opposed to the very end he held in view. As a ruler he displayed the same common sense. Obedience he made one of his great instruments, yet he never intended it to be a galling yoke. His doctrine on the subject is found in the well-known letter to the Portuguese Jesuits in 1553, and if this be read carefully together with the Constitutions his meaning is clear. If he says that a subject is to allow himself to be moved and directed, under God, by a superior just as though he were a corpse or as a staff in the hands of an old man, he is also careful to say that the obedience is only due in all things “wherein it cannot be defined (as it is said) that any kind of sin appears.” The way in which his teaching on obedience is practically carried out is the best corrective of the false ideas that have arisen from misconceptions of its nature. His high ideas on the subject made him a stern ruler. There are certain instances in his life which, taken by themselves, show a hardness in treating individuals who would not obey; but as a rule, he tempered his authority to the capacity of those with whom he had to deal. When he had to choose between the welfare of the Society and the feelings of an individual it was clear to which side the balance would fall.

There was in his character a peculiar mixture of conservatism and a keen sense of the requirements of the day. In intellectual matters he was not in advance of his day. The Jesuit system of education, set forth in the Ratio studiorum, owes nothing to him. While he did not reject any approved learning, he abhorred any intellectual culture that destroyed or lessened piety. He wished to secure uniformity in the judgment of the Society even in points left open and free by the church: “Let us all think in the same way, let us all speak in the same manner if possible.” Bartole, the official biographer of Ignatius, says that he would not permit any innovation in the studies; and that, were he to live five hundred years, he would always repeat “no novelties” in theology, in philosophy or in logic—not even in grammar. The revival of learning had led many away from Christ; intellectual culture must be used as a means of bringing them back. The new learning in religion had divided Christendom; the old learning of the faith, once delivered to the saints, was to reconcile them. This was the problem that faced Ignatius, and in his endeavour to effect a needed reformation in the individual and in society his work and the success that crowned it place him among the moral heroes of humanity.

Bibliography.—The Ignatian literature is very large. Fortunately we have in the Acta quaedam what is in effect the autobiography of the saint. This has been translated into English under the title of The testament of Ignatius Loyola, being sundry acts of our Father Ignatius, under God, the first founder of the Society of Jesus, taken down from the Saint’s own lips by Luis Gonzales (London, 1900); and the above account of Ignatius is taken in most places directly from this, which is not only the best of all sources but also a valuable corrective of the later and more imaginative works. Next to the Acta quaedam comes in value Polanco’s Vita Ignatii Loiolae, which is published in the Monumenta historica Societatis Jesu now in progress. Polanco was the saint’s secretary towards the end of his life. Ribadeneira, who as a youth had been associated with the founder, wrote his Vida del S. Ignacio de Loyola (Madrid, 1594), based on an early Latin work (Naples, 1572). Bartole, the official biographer, wrote his Della vita e dell’ instituto di S. Ignatio (Rome, 1650, 1659); Genelli wrote Das Leben des heiligen Ignatius von Loyola (Innsbruck, 1848); Nicolas Orlandinus gives a life in the first volume of the Historiae Societatis Jesu (Rome, 1615). It would be impossible to give a list even of the other lives, most of which are without value as histories, being written mainly for edification. But the student may be referred to the modern books Henri Joli’s St Ignace de Loyola (Paris, 1899), which is based on the best authorities, and to H. Müller’s curious Les Origines de la Compagnie de Jésus (Paris, 1898), in which the author tries to establish a Mahommedan origin for many of the ideas adopted by the saint.

The literature connected with the Spiritual Exercises is also large. It will be sufficient here to mention: A Book of Spiritual Exercises, written by Garcias de Cisneros (London, 1876); the official Latin text in the third volume of the Avignon edition of the Constitutions (1830); Roothaan’s Exercitia spiritualia S. P. Ignatii de Loyola, cum versione litterali ex autographo Hispanico, notis illustrata (Namur, 1841); Diertino, Historia exercitiorum S. P. Ignatii de Loyola (1887). Especially worthy of notice is P. Watrigant’s La Genèse des exercices de Saint Ignace de Loyola, republished from Les Études (20th May, 20th July, 20th October 1897).

(E. Tn.)

1 Louis de Berquin, who died on the 17th of April 1529, belonged to a noble family of Artois. He was a man of exemplary life and a friend of Erasmus and the humanists, besides being a persona grata at the court of Louise of Savoy and Francis I. His main offence was that he attacked the monks and clergy, and that he advocated the reading of the Scriptures by the people in the vulgar tongue.—

(W. A. P.)

LOZENGE (from the Fr. losenge, or losange; the word also appears in Span. losanje, and Ital. losanga; perhaps derived from a word meaning a stone slab laid on a grave, which appears in forms such as Provençal lousa, Span. losa, the ultimate origin of which is unknown, the Lat. lapis, stone, or laus, praise, in the sense of epitaph, have been suggested), properly a four equal-sided figure, having two acute and two obtuse angles, a rhomb or “diamond.” The figure is frequently used as a bearing in heraldry and especially as a shield so shaped on which the arms of a widow or spinster are emblazoned. It is used also to denote the diamond-shaped facets of a precious stone when cut, also the diamond panes of a casement window. In the 14th century the “lozenge pattern” was a favourite design for decoration. The word is also applied to a small tablet of sugar, originally diamond shaped, containing either medical drugs or some simple flavouring, or to a tablet of any concentrated substance, such as a meat-lozenge. In the reign of James I. of Scotland (1406-1437) a Scotch gold coin having a lozenge-shaped shield with the arms of Scotland on the obverse side was called a “lozenge-lion.”

LOZÈRE, a department of south-eastern France belonging to the central plateau, composed of almost the whole of Gévaudan and of some portions of the old dioceses of Uzès and Alais, districts all formerly included in the province of Languedoc. Pop. (1906) 128,016. Area, 1999 sq. m. It is bounded N. by Cantal and Haute-Loire, E. by Ardèche and Gard, S. by Gard and Aveyron and W. by Aveyron and Cantal. Lozère is mountainous throughout and in average elevation is the highest of all the French departments. It has three distinct regions—the Cévennes proper to the south-east, the causses to the south-west and the mountain tracts which occupy the rest of its area. The Cévennes begin (within Lozère) with Mont Aigoual, which rises to a height of more than 5100 ft.; parallel to this are the mountains of Bougès, bold and bare on their southern face, but falling gently with wooded slopes towards the Tarn which roughly limits the Cévennes on the north. To the north of the Tarn is the range of Lozère, including the peak of Finiels, the highest point of the department (5584 ft.). Farther on occurs the broad marshy plateau of Montbel, which drains southward to the Lot, northwards to the Allier, eastward by the Chassezac to the Ardèche. From this plateau extend the mountains of La Margeride, undulating granitic tablelands partly clothed with woods of oak, beech and fir, and partly covered with pastures, to which flocks are brought from lower Languedoc in summer. The highest point (Truc de Randon) reaches 5098 ft. Adjoining the Margeride hills on the west is the volcanic range of Aubrac, a pastoral district where horned cattle take the place of sheep; the highest point is 4826 ft. The causses of Lozère, having an area of about 564 sq. m., are calcareous, fissured and arid, but separated from each other by deep and well-watered gorges, contrasting with the desolate aspect of the plateaus. The causse of Sauveterre, between the Lot and the Tarn, ranges from 3000 to 3300 ft. in height; that of Méjan has nearly the same average altitude, but has peaks some 1000 ft. higher. Between these two causses the Tarn valley is among the most picturesque in France. Lozère is watered entirely by rivers rising within its own boundaries, being in this respect unique. The climate of Lozère varies greatly with the locality. The mean temperature of Mende (50° F.) is below that of Paris; that of the mountains is always low, but on the causses the summer is scorching and the winter severe; in the Cévennes the climate becomes mild enough at their base (656 ft.) to permit the growth of the olive. Rain falls in violent storms, causing disastrous floods. On the Mediterranean versant there are 76 in., in the Garonne basin 46 and in that of the Loire only 28. Sheep and cattle-rearing and cheese-making are the chief occupations. Bees are kept, and, among the Cévennes, silkworms. Large quantities of chestnuts are exported from the Cévennes, where they form an important article of diet. In the valley of the Lot wheat and fruit are the chief products; elsewhere rye is the chief cereal, and oats, barley, meslin and potatoes are also grown. Fruit trees and leguminous plants are irrigated by small canals (béals) on terraces made and maintained with much labour. Lead, zinc and antimony are found. Saw-milling, the manufacture of wooden shoes and wool-spinning are carried on; otherwise industries are few and unimportant. Of mineral springs, those of Bagnols-les-Bains are most frequented. The line of the Paris-Lyon company from Paris to Nîmes traverses the eastern border of the department, which is also served by the Midi railway with the line from Neussargues to Béziers via Marvéjols. The arrondissements are Mende, Florac and Marvéjols; the cantons number 24, the communes 198. Lozère forms the diocese of Mende and part of the ecclesiastical province of Albi. It falls within the region of the XVI. army corps, the circumscriptions of the académie (educational division) of Montpellier and the appeal court of Nîmes. Mende (q.v.) is its most important town.

LUANG-PRABANG, a town of French Indo-China, capital of the Lao state of that name, on the left bank of the Me Kong river. It lies at the foot of the pagoda hill which rises about 200 ft. above the plain on the promontory of land round which the Nam Kan winds to the main river. It has a population of about 9000 and contains the “palace” of the king of the state and several pagodas. In 1887 it was taken and sacked by the Haw or Black Flags, robber bands of Chinese soldiery, many of them survivors of the Taiping rebellion. In 1893 Siam was compelled to renounce her claims to the left bank of the Me Kong, including Luang-Prabang and the magnificent highlands of Chieng Kwang. That portion of the state which was on the right bank of the Me Kong was not affected by the treaty, except in so far as a portion of it fell within the sixteen miles’ zone within which Siam agreed not to keep troops. Trade is in the hands of Chinese or Shan traders; hill rice and other jungle products are imported from the surrounding districts by the Kha or hill people. The exports, which include rubber, gum benjamin, silk, wax, sticklac, cutch, cardamon, a little ebony, cinnamon, indigo, rhinoceros and deer horns, ivory and fish roe, formerly all passed by way of Paklai to the Me Nam, and so to Bangkok, but have now almost entirely ceased to follow that route, the object of the French government being to deflect the trade through French territory. Luang-Prabang is the terminus of navigation on the upper Me Kong and the centre of trade thereon.

LUBAO, a town in the south-western part of the province of Pampanga, Luzon, Philippine Islands, about 30 m. N.W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 19,063. Lubao is served by the Manila & Dagupan railway, and has water communication with Manila by tidal streams and Manila Bay. Its products are, therefore, readily marketed. It lies in a low, fertile plain, suited to the growing of rice and sugar. Many of the inhabitants occupy themselves in the neighbouring nipa swamps, either preparing the nipa leaves for use in house construction, or distilling “nipa-wine” from the juice secured by tapping the blossom stalks. The language is Pampangan.

LÜBBEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the Spree, 47 m. S.S.E. of Berlin, on the railway to Görlitz. Pop. (1905) 7173. It is the chief town of the Spreewald, and has saw-mills and manufactories of hosiery, shoes and paper, and is famous for its gurken, or small pickling cucumbers. The poet Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) was pastor here and is buried in the parish church.

LÜBECK, a state and city (Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck) of Germany. The principality of Lübeck, lying north of the state, is a constituent of the grand-duchy of Oldenburg (q.v.). The state is situated on an arm of the Baltic between Holstein and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. It consists of the city of Lübeck, the town of Travemünde, 49 villages and the country districts, embraces 115 sq. m. of territory, and had a population in 1907 of 109,265, of which 93,978 were included in the city and its immediate suburbs. The state lies in the lowlands of the Baltic, is diversified by gently swelling hills, and watered by the Trave and its tributaries, the Wakenitz and the Stecknitz. The soil is fertile, and, with the exception of forest land (14% of the whole area), is mostly devoted to market gardening. Trade is centred in the city of Lübeck.

The constitution of the free state is republican, and, by the fundamental law of 1875, amended in 1905 and again in 1907, consists of two assemblies. (1) The Senate of fourteen members, of whom eight must belong to the learned professions, and six of these again must be jurists, while of the remaining six, five must be merchants. The Senate represents the sovereignty of the state and is presided over by the Oberbürgermeister, who during his two years’ term of office bears the title of “magnificence.” (2) The House of Burgesses (Bürgerschaft), of 120 members, elected by free suffrage and exercising its powers partly in its collective capacity and partly through a committee of thirty members. Purely commercial matters are dealt with by the chamber of commerce, composed of a praeses, eighteen members and a secretary. This body controls the exchange and appoints brokers, shipping agents and underwriters. The executive is in the hands of the Senate, but the House of Burgesses has the right of initiating legislation, including that relative to foreign treaties; the sanction of both chambers is required to the passing of any new law. Lübeck has a court of first instance (Amtsgericht) and a high court of justice (Landgericht); from the latter appeals lie to the Hanseatic court of appeal (Oberlandesgericht) at Hamburg, and from this again to the supreme court of the empire (Reichsgericht) in Leipzig. The people are nearly all Lutherans, and education is compulsory between the ages of six and fourteen.

The estimated revenue for the year 1908-1909 amounted to about £650,000, and the expenditure to a like sum. The public debt amounted, in 1908, to about £2,518,000. Lübeck has one vote in the federal council (Bundesrat) of the German Empire, and sends one representative to the imperial parliament (Reichstag).

History of the Constitution.—At the first rise of the town justice was administered to the inhabitants by the Vogt (advocatus) of the count of Holstein. Simultaneously with its incorporation by Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, who presented the city with its own mint toll and market, there appears a magistracy of six, chosen probably by the Vogt from the Schöffen (scabini, probi homines). The members of the town council had to be freemen, born in lawful wedlock, in the enjoyment of estates in freehold and of unstained repute. Vassals or servants of any lord, and tradespeople, were excluded. A third of the number had annually to retire for a year, so that two-thirds formed the sitting council. By the middle of the 13th century there were two burgomasters (magistri burgensium). Meanwhile, the number of magistrates (consules) had increased, ranging from twenty to forty and upwards. The council appointed its own officers in the various branches of the administration. In the face of so much self-government the Vogt presently disappeared altogether. There were three classes of inhabitants, full freemen, half freemen and guests or foreigners. People of Slav origin being considered unfree, all intermarriage with them tainted the blood; hence nearly all surnames point to Saxon, especially Westphalian, and even Flemish descent. The magistracy was for two centuries almost exclusively in the hands of the merchant aristocracy, who formed the companies of traders or “nations,” such as the Bergen-fahrer, Novgorod-fahrer, Riga-fahrer and Stockholm-fahrer. From the beginning, however, tradesmen and handicraftsmen had settled in the town, all of them freemen of German parentage and with property and houses of their own. Though not eligible for the council, they shared to a certain extent in the self-government through the aldermen of each corporation or gild, of which some appear as early as the statutes of 1240. Naturally, there arose much jealousy between the gilds and the aristocratic companies, which exclusively ruled the republic. After an attempt to upset the merchants had been suppressed in 1384, the gilds succeeded, under more favourable circumstances, in 1408. The old patrician council left the city to appeal to the Hansa and to the imperial authorities, while a new council with democratic tendencies, elected chiefly from the gilds, took their place. In 1416, however, owing to the pressure brought to bear by the Hansa, by the emperor Sigismund and by Eric, king of Denmark, there was a restoration. The aristocratic government was again expelled under the dictatorship of Jürgen Wullenweber (c. 1492-1537), till the old order was re-established in 1535. In the constitution of 1669, under the pressure of a large public debt, the great companies yielded a specified share in the financial administration to the leading gilds of tradesmen. Nevertheless, the seven great companies continued to choose the magistrates by co-optation among themselves. Three of the four burgomasters and two of the senators, however, had henceforth to be graduates in law. The constitution, set aside only during the French occupation, has subsequently been slowly reformed. From 1813 the popular representatives had some share in the management of the finances. But the reform committee of 1814, whose object was to obtain an extension of the franchise, had made little progress, when the events of 1848 led to the establishment of a representative assembly of 120 members, elected by universal suffrage, which obtained a place beside the senatorial government. The republic has given up its own military contingent, its coinage and its postal dues to the German Empire; but it has preserved its municipal self-government and its own territory, the inhabitants of which enjoy equal political privileges with the citizens.

The City of Lübeck.—Lübeck, the capital of the free state, was formerly the head of the Hanseatic League. It is situated on a gentle ridge between the rivers Trave and Wakenitz, 10 m. S.W. of the mouth of the former in the bay of Lübeck, 40 m. by rail N.E. of Hamburg, at the junction of lines to Eutin, Büchen, Travemünde and Strassburg (in Mecklenburg-Schwerin) and consists of an inner town and three suburbs. The former ramparts between the Trave and the old town ditch have been converted into promenades. The city proper retains much of its ancient grandeur, despite the tendency to modernize streets and private houses. Foremost among its buildings must be mentioned its five chief churches, stately Gothic edifices in glazed brick, with lofty spires and replete with medieval works of art—pictures, stained glass and tombs. Of them, the Marienkirche, built in the 13th century, is one of the finest specimens of early Gothic in Germany. The cathedral, or Domkirche, founded in 1173, contains some curious sarcophagi and a magnificent altarpiece in one of the chapels, while the churches of St James (Jakobikirche), of St Peter (Petrikirche) and of St Aegidius (Aegidienkirche) are also remarkable. The Rathaus (town hall) of red and black glazed brick, dating from various epochs during the middle ages, is famous for its staircase, the vaulted wine cellar of the city council beneath and magnificent wood carving. There should also be mentioned the Schiffershaus; the medieval gates (Holstentor, Burgtor); and the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, remarkable for ancient frescoes and altars in rich wood carving, the entrance hall of which is a 13th-century chapel, restored in 1866 and decorated in 1898. The museum preserves the most remarkable municipal archives in existence as well as valuable collections of historical documents.

The poet, Emanuel Geibel (1889), and the painter, Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869), were natives of Lübeck. This city is famous for the number and wealth of its charitable institutions. Its position as the first German emporium of the west end of the Baltic has been to some extent impaired by Hamburg and Bremen since the construction of the North Sea and Baltic Canal, and by the rapid growth and enterprise of Stettin. In order to counterbalance their rivalry, the quays have been extended, a canal was opened in 1900 between the Trave and the Elbe, the river up to the wharves has been deepened to 23 ft. or more. The river is kept open in winter by ice-breakers. A harbour was made in 1899-1900 on the Wakenitz Canal for boats engaged in inland traffic, especially on the Elbe and Elbe-Trave Canal. Lübeck trades principally with Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the eastern provinces of Prussia, Great Britain and the United States. The imports amounted in value to about £4,850,000 in 1906 and the exports to over £10,000,000. The chief articles of import are coal, grain, timber, copper, steel and wine, and the exports are manufactured goods principally to Russia and Scandivania. The industries are growing, the chief being breweries and distilleries, saw-mills and planing-mills, shipbuilding, fish-curing, the manufacture of machinery, engines, bricks, resin, preserves, enamelled and tin goods, cigars, furniture, soap and leather. Pop. (1885) 55,399; (1905) 91,541.

History.—Old Lübeck stood on the left bank of the Trave, where it is joined by the river Schwartau, and was destroyed in 1138. Five years later Count Adolphus II. of Holstein founded new Lübeck, a few miles farther up, on the peninsula Buku, where the Trave is joined on the right by the Wakenitz, the emissary of the lake of Ratzeburg. An excellent harbour, sheltered against pirates, it became almost at once a competitor for the commerce of the Baltic. Its foundation coincided with the beginning of the advance of the Low German tribes of Flanders, Friesland and Westphalia along the southern shores of the Baltic—the second great emigration of the colonizing Saxon element. In 1140 Wagria, in 1142 the country of the Polabes (Ratzeburg and Lauenburg), had been annexed by the Holtsaetas (the Transalbingian Saxons). From 1166 onwards there was a Saxon count at Schwerin. Frisian and Saxon merchants from Soest, Bardowiek and other localities in Lower Germany, who already navigated the Baltic and had their factory in Gotland, settled in the new town, where Wendish speech and customs never entered. About 1157 Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, forced his vassal, the count of Holstein, to give up Lübeck to him; and in 1163 he removed thither the episcopal see of Oldenburg (Stargard), founding at the same time the dioceses of Ratzeburg and Schwerin. He issued the first charter to the citizens, and constituted them a free Saxon community having their own magistrate, an advantage over all other towns of his dominions. He invited traders of the north to visit his new market free of toll and custom, providing his subjects were promised similar privileges in return. From the beginning the king of Denmark granted them a settlement for their herring fishery on the coast of Schoonen. Adopting the statutes of Soest in Westphalia as their code, Saxon merchants exclusively ruled the city. In concurrence with the duke’s Vogt (advocatus) they recognized only one right of judicature within the town, to which nobles as well as artisans had to submit. Under these circumstances the population grew rapidly in wealth and influence by land and sea, so that, when Henry was attainted by the emperor, Frederick I., who came in person to besiege Lübeck in 1181, this potentate, “in consideration of its revenues and its situation on the frontier of the Empire,” fixed by charter, dated the 19th of September 1188, the limits, and enlarged the liberties, of the free town. In the year 1201 Lübeck was conquered by Waldemar II. of Denmark. But in 1223 it regained its liberty, after the king had been taken captive by the count of Schwerin. In 1226 it was made a free city of the Empire by Frederick II., and its inhabitants took part with the enemies of the Danish king in the victory of Bornhövede in July 1227. The citizens repelled the encroachments of their neighbours in Holstein and in Mecklenburg. On the other hand their town, being the principal emporium of the Baltic by the middle of the 13th century, acted as the firm ally of the Teutonic knights in Livonia. Emigrants founded new cities and new sees of Low German speech among alien and pagan races; and thus in the course of a century the commerce of Lübeck had supplanted that of Westphalia. In connexion with the Germans at Visby, the capital of Gotland, and at Riga, where they had a house from 1231, the people of Lübeck with their armed vessels scoured the sea between the Trave and the Neva. They were encouraged by papal bulls in their contest for the rights of property in wrecks and for the protection of shipping against pirates and slave-hunters. Before the close of the century the statutes of Lübeck were adopted by most Baltic towns having a German population, and Visby protested in vain against the city on the Trave having become the court of appeal for nearly all these cities, and even for the German settlement in Russian Novgorod. In course of time more than a hundred places were embraced in this relation, the last vestiges of which did not disappear until the beginning of the 18th century. From about 1299 Lübeck presided over a league of cities, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, Greifswald and some smaller ones, and this Hansa of towns became heir to a Hansa of traders simultaneously on the eastern and the western sea, after Lübeck and her confederates had been admitted to the same privileges with Cologne, Dortmund and Soest at Bruges and in the steelyards of London, Lynn and Boston. The union held its own, chiefly along the maritime outskirts of the Empire, rather against the will of king and emperor, but nevertheless Rudolph of Habsburg and several of his successors issued new charters to Lübeck. As early as 1241 Lübeck, Hamburg and Soest had combined to secure their highways against robber knights. Treaties to enforce the public peace were concluded in 1291 and 1338 with the dukes of Brunswick, Mecklenburg and Pomerania, and the count of Holstein. Though the great federal armament against Waldemar IV., the destroyer of Visby, was decreed by the city representatives assembled at Cologne in 1367, Lübeck was the leading spirit in the war which ended with the surrender of Copenhagen and the peace concluded at Stralsund on the 24th of May 1370. Her burgomaster, Brun Warendorp, who commanded the combined naval and land forces, died on the field of battle. In 1368 the seal of the city, a double-headed eagle, which in the 14th century took the place of the more ancient ship, was adopted as the common seal of the confederated towns (civitates maritimae), some seventy in number. Towards the end of the 15th century the power of the Hanseatic League began to decline, owing to the rise of Burgundy in the west, of Poland and Russia in the east and the emancipation of the Scandinavian kingdom from the union of Calmar. Still Lübeck, even when nearly isolated, strove to preserve its predominance in a war with Denmark (1501-12), supporting Gustavus Vasa in Sweden, lording it over the north of Europe during the years 1534 and 1535 in the person of Jürgen Wullenweber, the democratic burgomaster, who professed the most advanced principles of the Reformation, and engaging with Sweden in a severe naval war (1536-70).

But the prestige and prosperity of the town were beginning to decline. Before the end of the 16th century the privileges of the London Steelyard were suppressed by Elizabeth. As early as 1425 the herring, a constant source of early wealth, began to forsake the Baltic waters. Later on, by the discovery of a new continent, commerce was diverted into new directions. Finally, with the Thirty Years’ War, misfortunes came thick. The last Hanseatic diet met at Lübeck in 1630, shortly after Wallenstein’s unsuccessful attack on Stralsund; and from that time merciless sovereign powers stopped free intercourse on all sides. Danes and Swedes battled for the possession of the Sound and for its heavy dues. The often changing masters of Holstein and Lauenburg abstracted much of the valuable landed property of the city and of the chapter of Lübeck. Towards the end of the 18th century there were signs of improvement. Though the Danes temporarily occupied the town in 1801, it preserved its freedom and gained some of the chapter lands when the imperial constitution of Germany was broken up by the act of February 1803, while trade and commerce prospered for a few years. But in November 1806, when Blücher, retiring from the catastrophe of Jena, had to capitulate in the vicinity of Lübeck, the town was sacked by the French. Napoleon annexed it to his empire in December 1810. But it rose against the French in March 1813, was re-occupied by them till the 5th of December, and was ultimately declared a free and Hanse town of the German Confederation by the act of Vienna of the 9th of June 1815. The Hanseatic League, however, having never been officially dissolved, Lübeck still enjoyed its traditional connexion with Bremen and Hamburg. In 1853 they sold their common property, the London Steelyard; until 1866 they enlisted by special contract their military contingents for the German Confederation, and down to 1879 they had their own court of appeal at Lübeck. Lübeck joined the North German Confederation in 1866, profiting by the retirement from Holstein and Lauenburg of the Danes, whose interference had prevented as long as possible a direct railway between Lübeck and Hamburg. On the 27th of June 1867 Lübeck concluded a military convention with Prussia, and on the 11th of August 1868 entered the German Customs Union (Zollverein), though reserving to itself certain privileges in respect of its considerable wine trade and commerce with the Baltic ports.

See E. Deecke, Die Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck (4th ed., Lübeck, 1881) and Lübische Geschichten und Sagen (Lübeck, 1891); M. Hoffmann, Geschichte der Freien und Hansestadt Lübeck (Lübeck, 1889-1892) and Chronik von Lübeck (Lübeck, 1908); Die Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck, published by Die geographische Gesellschaft in Lübeck (Lübeck, 1891); C. W. Pauli, Lübecksche Zustände im Mittelalter (Lübeck, 1846-1878); J. Geffcken, Lübeck in der Mitte des 16ten Jahrhunderts (Lübeck, 1905); P. Hasse, Die Anfange Lübecks (Lübeck, 1893); H. Bödeker, Geschichte der Freien und Hansestadt Lübeck (Lübeck, 1898); A. Holm, Lübeck, die Freie und Hansestadt (Bielefeld, 1900); G. Waitz, Lübeck unter Jürgen Wullenweber (Berlin, 1855-1856); Klug, Geschichte Lübecks während der Vereinigung mit dem französischen Kaiserreich (Lübeck, 1857); F. Frensdorff, Die Stadt- und Gerichtsverfassung Lübecks im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert (Lübeck, 1861); the Urkundenbuch der Stadt Lübeck (Lübeck, 1843-1904); the Lübecker Chroniken (Leipzig, 1884-1903); and the Zeitschrift des Vereins für lübeckische Geschichte (Lübeck, 1860 fol.).

(R. P.; P. A. A.)

LUBLIN, a government of Russian Poland, bounded N. by Siedlce, E. by Volhynia (the Bug forming the boundary), S. by Galicia, and W. by Radom (the Vistula separating the two). Area, 6499 sq. m. The surface is an undulating plain of Cretaceous deposits, 800 to 900 ft. in altitude, and reaching in one place 1050 ft. It is largely covered with forests of oak, beech and lime, intersected by ravines and thinly inhabited. A marshy lowland extends between the Vistula and the Wieprz. The government is drained by the Vistula and the Bug, and by their tributaries the Wieprz, San and Tanev. Parts of the government, being of black earth, are fertile, but other parts are sandy. Agriculture is in good condition. Many Germans settled in the government before immigration was stopped in 1887; in 1897 they numbered about 26,000. Rye, oats, wheat, barley and potatoes are the chief crops, rye and wheat being exported. Flax, hemp, buckwheat, peas, millet and beetroot are also cultivated. Horses are carefully bred. In 1897 the population was 1,165,122, of whom 604,886 were women. The Greek Orthodox (chiefly Little Russians in the south-east) amounted to 20.1% of the whole; Roman Catholics (i.e. Poles) to 62.8%; Jews to 14.2%; and Protestants to 2.8%. The urban population was 148,196 in 1897. The estimated population in 1906 was 1,362,500. Industrial establishments consist chiefly of distilleries, sugar-works, steam flour-mills, tanneries, saw-mills and factories of bent-wood furniture. Domestic industries are widely developed in the villages. River navigation employs a considerable portion of the population. The government is divided into ten districts, the chief towns of which, with their populations in 1897, are—Lublin, capital of the province (50,152); Biegoray (6286); Cholm (19,236); Hrubieszow (10,699); Yanów (7927); Krasnystaw or Kraznostav (8879); Lubartow (5249); Nova-Alexandrya or Pulawy (3892); Samostye (12,400); and Tomaszów (6224).

LUBLIN, a town of Russian Poland, capital of the government of the same name, 109 m. by rail S.E. of Warsaw, on a small tributary of the Wieprz. Pop. (1873) 28,900; (1897) 50,152. It is the most important town of Poland after Warsaw and Lodz, being one of the chief centres of the manufacture of thread-yarn, linen and hempen goods and woollen stuffs; there is also trade in grain and cattle. It has an old citadel, several palaces of Polish nobles and many interesting churches, and is the headquarters of the XIV. army corps, and the see of a Roman Catholic bishop. The cathedral dates from the 16th century. Of the former fortifications nothing remains except the four gates, one dating from 1342.

Lublin was in existence in the 10th century, and has a church which is said to have been built in 986. During the time the Jagellon dynasty ruled over Lithuania and Poland it was the most important city between the Vistula and the Dnieper, having 40,000 inhabitants (70,000 according to other authorities) and all the trade with Podolia, Volhynia and Red Russia. Indeed, the present town is surrounded with ruins, which prove that it formerly covered a much larger area. But it was frequently destroyed by the Tatars (e.g. 1240) and Cossacks (e.g. 1477). In 1568-1569 it was the seat of the stormy convention at which the union between Poland and Lithuania was decided. In 1702 another convention was held in Lublin, in favour of Augustus II. and against Charles XII. of Sweden, who carried the town by assault and plundered it. In 1831 Lublin was taken by the Russians. The surrounding country is rich in reminiscences of the struggle of Poland for independence.

LUBRICANTS. Machines consist of parts which have relative motion and generally slide and rub against each other. Thus the axle of a cart or railway vehicle is pressed against a metallic bearing surface supporting the body of the vehicle, and the two opposed surfaces slide upon each other and are pressed together with great force. If the metallic surfaces be clean, the speed of rubbing high, and the force pressing the surfaces together considerable, then the latter will abrade each other, become hot and be rapidly destroyed. It is possible, however, to prevent the serious abrasion of such opposing surfaces, and largely to reduce the frictional resistance they oppose to relative motion by the use of lubricants (Lat. lubricare, lubricus, slippery). These substances are caused to insinuate themselves between the surfaces, and have the property of so separating them as to prevent serious abrasion. The solid and semi-solid lubricants seem to act as rollers between the surfaces, or form a film between them which itself suffers abrasion or friction. The liquid lubricants, however, maintain themselves as liquid films between the surfaces, upon which the bearing floats. The frictional resistance is then wholly in the fluid. Even when lubricants are used the friction, i.e. the resistance to motion offered by the opposing surfaces, is considerable. In the article Friction will be found a statement of how friction is measured and the manner in which it is expressed. The coefficient of friction is obtained by dividing the force required to cause the surfaces to slide over each other by the load pressing them together. For clean unlubricated surfaces this coefficient may be as great as 0.3, whilst for well-lubricated cylindrical bearings it may be as small as 0.0006. Engineers have, therefore, paid particular attention to the design of bearings with the object of reducing the friction, and thus making use of as much as possible of the power developed by prime movers. The importance of doing this will be seen when it is remembered that the energy wasted is proportional to the coefficient of friction, and that the durability of the parts depends upon the extent to which they are separated by the lubricant and thus prevented from injuring each other.

There is great diversity in the shapes of rubbing surfaces, the loads they have to carry vary widely, and the speed of rubbing ranges from less than one foot to thousands of feet per minute. There is also a large number of substances which act as lubricants, some being liquids and others soft solids. In many instruments or machines where the surfaces in contact which have to slide upon each other are only lightly pressed together, and are only occasionally given relative motion, the lubricant is only needed to prevent abrasion. Microscopes and mathematical instruments are of this kind. In such cases, the lubricant which keeps the surfaces from abrading each other is a mere contamination film, either derived from the air or put on when the surfaces are finished. When such lubricating films are depended upon, the friction surfaces should be as hard as possible and, if practicable, of dissimilar metals. In the absence of a contamination film, most metals, if rubbed when in contact, will immediately adhere to each other. A large number of experiments have been made to ascertain the coefficient of friction under these imperfect conditions of lubrication. Within wide limits of load, the friction is proportional to the pressure normal to the surfaces and is, therefore, approximately independent of the area of the surfaces in contact. Although the static coefficient is often less than the kinetic at very low speeds, within wide limits the latter coefficient decreases with increasing speed. These laws apply to all bearings the velocity of rubbing of which is very small, or which are lubricated with solid or semi-solid materials.

When the speed of rubbing is considerable and the contamination film is liable to be destroyed, resort is had to lubricants which possess the power of keeping the surfaces apart, and thereby reducing the friction. The constant application of such substances is necessary in the case of such parts of machine tools as slide rests, the surfaces of which only move relatively to each other at moderate speeds, but which have to carry heavy loads. In all ordinary cases, the coefficient of friction of flat surfaces, such as those of slide blocks or pivot bearings, is high, owing to the fact that the lubricant is not easily forced between the surfaces. In the case of cylindrical bearing surfaces, such as those of journals and spindles, owing to the fact that the radius of the bearing surface is greater than that of the journal or spindle, the lubricant, if a liquid, is easily drawn in and entirely separates the surfaces (see Lubrication). Fortunately, cylindrical bearings are by far the most common and important form of bearing, and they can be so lubricated that the friction coefficient is very low. The lubricant, owing to its viscosity, is forced between the surfaces and keeps them entirely apart. This property of viscosity is one of the most important possessed by liquid lubricants. Some lubricants, such as the oils used for the light spindles of textile machinery, are quite thin and limpid, whilst others, suitable for steam engine cylinders and very heavy bearings, are, at ordinary temperatures, as thick as treacle or honey. Generally speaking, the greater the viscosity of the lubricant the greater the load the bearing will carry, but with thick lubricants the frictional coefficient is correspondingly high. True lubricants differ from ordinary liquids of equal viscosity inasmuch as they possess the property of “oiliness.” This is a property which enables them to maintain an unbroken film between surfaces when the loads are heavy. It is possessed most markedly by vegetables and animal oils and fats, and less markedly by mineral oils. In the case of mineral lubricating oils from the same source, the lower the specific gravity the greater the oiliness of the liquid, as a rule. Mixtures of mineral oil with animal or vegetable oil are largely used, one class of oil supplying those qualities in which the other is deficient. Thus the mineral oils, which are comparatively cheap and possess the important property of not becoming oxidized into gummy or sticky substances by the action of the air, which also are not liable to cause spontaneous ignition of cotton waste, &c., and can be manufactured of almost any desired viscosity, but which on the other hand are somewhat deficient in the property of oiliness, are mixed with animal or vegetable oils which possess the latter property in marked degree, but are liable to gum and become acid and to cause spontaneous ignition, besides being comparatively expensive and limited in quantity. Oils which become acid attack the bearings chemically, and those which oxidize may become so thick that they fail to run on to the bearings properly.

The following table shows that the permissible load on bearings varies greatly:—

Description of Bearing. Load in ℔ per sq. in.

Hard steel bearings on which the load is intermittent,

such as the crank pins of shearing machines 3000

Bronze crosshead neck journals 1200

Crank pins of large slow engines 800-900

Crank pins of marine engines 400-500

Main crank-shaft bearings, slow marine 600

Main crank-shaft bearings, fast marine 400

Railway coach journals 300-400

Fly-wheel shaft journals 150-200

Small engine crank pins 150-200

Small slide blocks, marine engines 100

Stationary engine slide block 25-125

Stationary engine slide block, usually 30-60

Propeller thrust bearings 50-70

Shafts in cast iron steps, high speed 15

Solid Lubricants.—Solid substances, such as graphite or plumbago, soapstone, &c., are used as lubricants when there is some objection to liquids or soft solids, but the surfaces between which they are placed should be of very hard materials. They are frequently mixed with oils or greases, the lubricating properties of which they improve.

Semi-solid Lubricants.—The contrast in lubricating properties between mineral and fatty oils exists also in the case of a pure mineral grease like vaseline and an animal fat such as tallow, the latter possessing in a far greater degree the property of greasiness. A large number of lubricating greases are made by incorporating or emulsifying animal and vegetable fats with soap and water; also by thickening mineral lubricating oils with soap. Large quantities of these greases are used with very good results for the lubrication of railway waggon axles, and some of them are excellent lubricants for the bearings of slow moving machinery. Care must be taken, however, that they do not contain excess of water and are not adulterated with such useless substances as china clay; also, that they melt as a whole, and that the oil does not run down and leave the soap. This is liable to occur with badly made greases, and hot bearings are the result. Except in special cases, greases should not be used for quick-running journals, shafts or spindles, on account of the high frictional resistance which they offer to motion. In the case of fats and greases whose melting points are not much above the temperature of surrounding objects it generally happens that the lubricating films are so warmed by friction that they actually melt and act as oils. These lubricants are generally forced into the bearings by a form of syringe fitted with a spring piston, or are squeezed between the faces by means of a screw-plug.

Liquid Lubricants.—Generally speaking, all bearings which it is necessary should run with as little friction as possible must be supplied with liquid lubricants. These may be of animal, vegetable or mineral origin. The mineral oils are mixtures of hydrocarbons of variable viscosity, flashing-point, density and oiliness. They are obtained by distillation from American, Russian and other petroleums. The fixed oils obtained from animal and vegetable substances are not volatile without decomposition, and are found ready made in the tissues of animals and plants. Animal oils are obtained from the adipose tissue by simple heat or by boiling with water. They are usually either colourless or yellow. The oils of plants occur usually in the seeds or fruit, and are obtained either by expression or by means of solvents such as ether or petroleum. They are of various shades of yellow and green, the green colour being due to the presence of chlorophyll. The fundamental difference between fixed oils and mineral oils exists in their behaviour towards oxygen. Mineral oils at ordinary temperatures are indifferent to oxygen, but all fixed oils combine with it and thicken or gum more or less, generating heat at the same time. Such oils are, therefore, dangerous if dropped upon silk, cotton or woollen waste or other combustible fibrous materials, which are thus rendered liable to spontaneous ignition.

Liquid lubricants are used for all high speed bearings. In some cases the rubbing surfaces work in a bath of the lubricant, which can then reach all the rubbing parts with certainty. Small engines for motor cars or road waggons are often lubricated in this way. In the case of individual bearings, such as those of railway vehicles, a pad of cotton, worsted and horse hair is kept saturated with the lubricant and pressed against the under side of the journal. The journal is thus kept constantly wetted with oil, and the film is forced beneath the brass as the axle rotates. In many cases, oil-ways and grooves are cut in the bearings, and the lubricant is allowed to run by gravity into them and thus finds its way between the opposing surfaces. To secure a steady feed various contrivances are adopted, the most common being a wick of cotton or worsted used as a siphon. In cases where it is important that little if any wear should take place, the lubricant is forced by means of a pump between the friction surfaces and a constant film of oil is thereby maintained between them.

For the spindles of small machines such as clocks, watches and other delicate mechanisms, which are only lubricated at long intervals and are often exposed to extremes of temperature, the lubricant must be a fluid oil as free as possible from tendency to gum or thicken by oxidation or to corrode metal, and must often have a low freezing-point. It must also possess a maximum of “oiliness.” The lubricants mostly used for such purposes are obtained from porpoise or dolphin jaw oils, bean oil, hazel nut oil, neatsfoot oil, sperm oil or olive oil. These oils are exposed for some time to temperatures as low as the mechanism is required to work at, and the portion which remains fluid is separated and used. Free acid should be entirely eliminated by chemical refining. A little good mineral oil may with advantage be mixed with the fatty oil.

For all ordinary machinery, ranging from the light ring spindles of textile mills to the heavy shafts of large engines, mineral oils are almost universally employed, either alone or mixed with fatty oils, the general rule being to use pure mineral oils for bath, forced or circulating pump lubrication, and mixed oils for drop, siphon and other less perfect methods of lubrication. Pure mineral oils of relatively low viscosity are used for high speeds and low pressures, mixed oils of greater viscosity for low speeds and high pressures. In selecting oils for low speeds and great pressures, viscosity must be the first consideration, and next to that “oiliness.” If an oil of sufficiently high viscosity be used, a mineral oil may give a result as good or better than a pure fixed oil; a mixed oil may give a better result than either. If a mineral oil of sufficient viscosity be not available, then a fixed oil or fat may be expected to give the best result.

In special cases, such as in the lubrication of textile machines, where the oil is liable to be splashed upon the fabric, the primary consideration is to use an oil which can be washed out without leaving a stain. Pure fixed oils, or mixtures composed largely of fixed oils, are used for such purposes.

In other special cases, such as marine engines working in hot places, mixtures are used of mineral oil with rape or other vegetable oil artificially thickened by blowing air through the heated oil, and known as “blown” oil or “soluble castor oil.”

In the lubrication of the cylinders and valves of steam, gas and oil engines, the lubricant must possess as much viscosity as possible at the working temperature, must not evaporate appreciably and must not decompose and liberate fatty acids which would corrode the metal and choke the steam passages with metallic soaps; for gas and oil engines the lubricant must be as free as possible from tendency to decompose and deposit carbon when heated. For this reason steam cylinders and valves should be lubricated with pure mineral oils of the highest viscosity, mixed with no more fixed oil than is necessary to ensure efficient lubrication. Gas and oil engines also should be lubricated with pure mineral oils wherever possible.

For further information on the theory and practice of lubrication and on the testing of lubricants, see Friction and Lost Work in Machinery and Mill Work, by R. H. Thurston (1903); and Lubrication and Lubricants, by L. Archbutt and R. M. Deeley (1906).

(R. M. D.)

LUBRICATION. Our knowledge of the action of oils and other viscous fluids in diminishing friction and wear between solid surfaces from being purely empirical has become a connected theory, based on the known properties of matter, subjected to the definition of mathematical analysis and verified by experiment. The theory was published in 1886 (Phil. Trans., 1886, 177, pp. 157-234); but it is the purpose of this article not so much to explain its application, as to give a brief account of the introduction of the misconceptions that so long prevailed, and of the manner in which their removal led to its general acceptance.

Friction, or resistance to tangential shifting of matter over matter, whatever the mode and arrangement, differs greatly according to the materials, but, like all material resistance, is essentially limited. The range of the limits in available materials has a primary place in determining mechanical possibilities, and from the earliest times they have demanded the closest attention on the part of all who have to do with structures or with machines, the former being concerned to find those materials and their arrangements which possess the highest limits, and the latter the materials in which the limits are least. Long before the reformation of science in the 15th and 16th centuries both these limits had formed the subject of such empirical research as disclosed numerous definite although disconnected circumstances under which they could be secured; and these, however far from the highest and lowest, satisfied the exigencies of practical mechanics at the time, thus initiating the method of extending knowledge which was to be subsequently recognized as the only basis of physical philosophy. In this purely empirical research the conclusion arrived at represented the results for the actual circumstance from which they were drawn, and thus afforded no place for theoretical discrepancies. However, in the attempts at generalization which followed the reformation of science, opportunity was afforded for such discrepancies in the mere enunciation of the circumstances in which the so-called laws of friction of motion are supposed to apply. The circumstances in which the great amount of empirical research was conducted as to the resistance between the clean, plane, smooth surfaces of rigid bodies moving over each other under pressure, invariably include the presence of air at atmospheric pressure around, and to some extent between, the surfaces; but this fact had received no notice in the enunciation of these laws, and this constitutes a theoretical departure from the conditions under which the experience had been obtained. Also, the theoretical division of the law of frictional resistance into two laws—one dealing with the limit of rest, and the other asserting that the friction of motion, which is invariably less in similar circumstances than that of rest, is independent of the velocity of sliding—involves the theoretical assumption that there is no asymptotic law of diminution of the resistance, since, starting from rest, the rate of sliding increases. The theoretical substitution of ideal rigid bodies with geometrically regular surfaces, sliding in contact under pressure at the common regular surface, for the aërated surfaces in the actual circumstances, and the theoretical substitution of the absolute independence of the resistance of the rate of sliding for the limited independence in the actual circumstances, prove the general acceptance of the conceptions—(1) that matter can slide over matter under pressure at a geometrically regular surface; (2) that, however much the resistance to sliding under any particular pressure (the coefficient of friction) may depend on the physical properties of the materials, the sliding under pressure takes place at the geometrically regular surface of contact of the rigid bodies; and (3) as the consequence of (1) and (2), that whatever the effect of a lubricant, such as oil, might have, it could be a physical surface effect. Thus not only did these general theoretical conceptions, resulting from the theoretical laws of friction, fail to indicate that the lubricant may diminish the resistance by the mere mechanical separation of the surfaces, but they precluded the idea that such might be the case. The result was that all subsequent attempts to reduce the empirical facts, where a lubricant was used, to such general laws as might reveal the separate functions of the complex circumstances on which lubrication depends, completely failed. Thus until 1883 the science of lubrication had not advanced beyond the empirical stage.

This period of stagnation was terminated by an accidental phenomenon observed by Beauchamp Tower, while engaged on his research on the friction of the journals of railway carriages. His observation led him to a line of experiments which proved that in these experiments the general function of the lubricant was the mechanical separation of the metal surfaces by a layer of fluid of finite thickness, thus upsetting the preconceived ideas as expressed in the laws of the friction of motion. On the publication of Tower’s reports (Proc. Inst. M.E., November 1883), it was recognized by several physicists (B.A. Report, 1884, pp. 14, 625) that the evidence they contained afforded a basis for further study of the actions involved, indicating as it did the circumstances—namely, the properties of viscosity and cohesion possessed by fluids—account of which had not been taken in previous conclusions. It also became apparent that continuous or steady lubrication, such as that of Tower’s experiments, is only secured when the solid surfaces separated by the lubricant are so shaped that the thickness at the ingoing side is greater than that at the outgoing side.

When the general equations of viscous fluids had been shown as the result of the labours of C. L. M. H. Navier,1 A. L. Cauchy,2 S. D. Poisson,3 A. J. C. Barré de St Venant,4 and in 1845 of Sir G. Gabriel Stokes,5 to involve no other assumption than that the stresses, other than the pressure equal in all directions, are linear functions of the distortional rates of strain multiplied by a constant coefficient, it was found that the only solutions of which the equations admitted, when applied to fluids flowing between fixed boundaries, as water in a pipe, were singular solutions for steady or steady periodic motion, and that the conclusions they entailed, that the resistance would be proportional to the velocity, were for the most part directly at variance with the common experience that the resistances varied with the square of the velocity. This discrepancy was sometimes supposed to be the result of eddies in the fluid, but it was not till 1883 that it was discovered by experiments with colour bands that, in the case of geometrically similar boundaries, the existence or non-existence of such eddies depended upon a definite relation between the mean velocity (U) of the fluid, the distance between the boundaries, and the ratio of the coefficient of viscosity to the density (μ/ρ), expressed by UDρ/μ = K, where K is a physical constant independent of units, which has a value between 1900 and 2000, and for parallel boundaries D is four times the area of the channel divided by the perimeter of the section (Phil. Trans., 1883, part iii. 935-982). K is thus a criterion at which the law of resistance to the mean flow changes suddenly (as U increases), from being proportional to the flow, to a law involving higher powers of the velocity at first, but as the rates increase approaching an asymptote in which the power is a little less that the square.

This sudden change in the law of resistance to the flow of fluid between solid boundaries, depending as it does on a complete change in the manner of the flow—from direct parallel flow to sinuous eddying motion—serves to determine analytically the circumstances as to the velocity and the thickness of the film under which any fluid having a particular coefficient of viscosity can act the part of a lubricant. For as long as the circumstances are such that UDρ/μ is less than K, the parallel flow is held stable by the viscosity, so that only one solution is possible—that in which the resistance is the product of μ multiplied by the rate of distortion, as μ(du/dy); in this case the fluid has lubricating properties. But when the circumstances are such that UDρ/μ is greater than K, other solutions become possible, and the parallel flow becomes unstable, breaks down into eddying motion, and the resistance varies as ρun, which approximates to ρu1.78 as the velocity increases; in this state the fluid has no lubricating properties. Thus, within the limits of the criterion, the rate of displacement of the momentum of the fluid is insignificant as compared with the viscous resistance, and may be neglected; while outside this limit the direct effects of the eddying motion completely dominate the viscous resistance, which in its turn may be neglected. Thus K is a criterion which separates the flow of fluid between solid surfaces as definitely as the flow of fluid is separated from the relative motions in elastic solids, and it is by the knowledge of the limit on which this distinction depends that the theory of viscous flow can with assurance be applied to the circumstance of lubrication.

Until the existence of this physical constant was discovered, any theoretical conclusions as to whether in any particular circumstances the resistance of the lubricant would follow the law of viscous flow or that of eddying motion was impossible. Thus Tower, being unaware of the discovery of the criterion, which was published in the same year as his reports, was thrown off the scent in his endeavour to verify the evidence he had obtained as to the finite thickness of the film by varying the velocity. He remarks in his first report that, “according to the theory of fluid motion, the resistance would be as the square of the velocity, whereas in his results it did not increase according to this law.” The rational theory of lubrication does not, however, depend solely on the viscosity within the interior of fluids, but also depends on the surface action between the fluid and the solid. In many respects the surface actions, as indicated by surface tension, are still obscure, and there has been a general tendency to assume that there may be discontinuity in the velocity at the common surface. But whatever these actions may be in other respects, there is abundant evidence that there is no appreciable discontinuity in the velocity at the surfaces as long as the fluid has finite thickness. Hence in the case of lubrication the velocities of the fluid at the surfaces of the solids are those of the solid. In as far as the presence of the lubricant is necessary, such properties as cause oil in spite of its surface tension to spread even against gravity over a bright metal surface, while mercury will concentrate into globules on the bright surface of iron, have an important place in securing lubrication where the action is intermittent, as in the escapement of a clock. If there is oil on the pallet, although the pressure of the tooth causes this to flow out laterally from between the surfaces, it goes back again by surface tension during the intervals; hence the importance of using fluids with low surface tension like oil, or special oils, when there is no other means of securing the presence of the lubricant.

The differential equations for the equilibrium of the lubricant are what the differential equations of viscous fluid in steady motion become when subject to the conditions necessary for lubrication as already defined—(1) the velocity is below the critical value; (2) at the surfaces the velocity of the fluid is that of the solid; (3) the thickness of the film is small compared with the lateral dimensions of the surfaces and the radii of curvature of the surfaces. By the first of these conditions all the terms having ρ as a factor may be neglected, and the equations thus become the equations of equilibrium of the fluid; as such, they are applicable to fluid whether incompressible or elastic, and however the pressure may affect the viscosity. But the analysis is greatly simplified by omitting all terms depending on compressibility and by taking μ constant; this may be done without loss of generality in a qualitative sense. With these limitations we have for the differential equation of the equilibrium of the lubricant:—

0 = dp − μ²u, &c., &c., 0 = du + dv + dw

dx dx dx dx

0 = pyx − μ ( du + dv ), &c., &c.

dy dx

(1)

These are subject to the boundary conditions (2) and (3). Taking x as measured parallel to one of the surfaces in the direction of relative motion, y normal to the surface and z normal to the plane of xy by condition (3), we may without error disregard the effect of any curvature in the surfaces. Also v is small compared with u and w, and the variations of u and w in the directions x and z are small compared with their variation in the direction y. The equations (1) reduce to

0 = dp − μ d²u , 0 = dp , 0 = dp − μ d²w , 0 = du + dv + dw

dx dy² dy dz dy² dx dy dz

0 = pyx − μ du , 0 = pyz − μ dw , pxz = 0.

dy dy

(2)

For the boundary conditions, putting f(x, z) as limiting the lateral area of the lubricant, the conditions at the surfaces may be expressed thus:—

when y = 0, u = U0, w = 0, v = 0

when y = h, u = U1, w = 0, v1, = U1 dh + V1

dx

when ƒ(x, z) = 0, p = p0

(3)

Then, integrating the equations (2) over y, and determining the constants by equations (3), we have, since by the second of equations (2) p is independent of y,

u = 1 dp (y − h) y + U0 h − y + U1 y

2μ dx h h

w = 1 dp (y − h) y

2μ dz

(4)

Then, differentiating equations (4) with respect to x and z respectively, and substituting in the 4th of equations (2), and integrating from y = 0 to y = h, so that only the values of v at the surfaces may be required, we have for the differential equation of normal pressure at any point x, z, between the boundaries:—

d ( h³ dp ) + d ( h³ dp ) = 6μ { (U0 + U1) dh + 2V1 }

dx dz dz dz dx

(5)

Again differentiating equations (4), with respect to x and z respectively, and substituting in the 5th and 6th of equations (2), and putting fx and fz for the intensities of the tangential stresses at the lower and upper surfaces:—

ƒx = μ (U1 − U0) 1 ± h dp

h 2 dx

ƒx = ± h dp

2 dx

(6)

Equations (5) and (6) are the general equations for the stresses at the boundaries at x, z, when h is a continuous function of x and z, μ and ρ being constant.

For the integration of equations (6) to get the resultant stresses and moments on the solid boundaries, so as to obtain the conditions of their equilibrium, it is necessary to know how x and z at any point on the boundary enter into h, as well as the equation ƒ(x, z) = 0, which determines the limits of the lubricating film. If y, the normal to one of the surfaces, has not the same direction for all points of this surface, in other words, if the surface is not plane, x and z become curvilinear co-ordinates, at all points perpendicular to y. Since, for lubrication, one of the surfaces must be plane, cylindrical, or a surface of revolution, we may put x = Rθ, y = r − R, and z perpendicular to the plane of motion. Then, if the data are sufficient, the resultant stresses and moments between the surfaces are obtained by integrating the intensity of the stress and moments of intensity of stress over the surface.

This, however, is not the usual problem that arises. What is generally wanted is to find the thickness of the film where least (h0) and its angular position with respect to direction of load, to resist a definite load with a particular surface velocity. If the surfaces are plane, the general solution involves only one arbitrary constant, the least thickness (h0); since in any particular case the variation of h with x is necessarily fixed, as in this case lubrication affords no automatic adjustment of this slope. When both surfaces are curved in the plane of motion there are at least two arbitrary constants, h0, and φ the angular position of h0 with respect to direction of load; while if the surfaces are both curved in a plane perpendicular to the direction of motion as well as in the plane of motion, there are three arbitrary constants, h0, φ0, z0. The only constraint necessary is to prevent rotation in the plane of motion of one of the surfaces, leaving this surface free to move in any direction and to adjust its position so as to be in equilibrium under the load.

The integrations necessary for the solutions of these problems are practicable—complete or approximate—and have been effected for circumstances which include the chief cases of practical lubrication, the results having been verified by reference to Tower’s experiments. In this way the verified theory is available for guidance outside the limits of experience as well as for determining the limiting conditions. But it is necessary to take into account certain subsidiary theories. These limits depend on the coefficient of viscosity, which diminishes as the temperature increases. The total work in overcoming the resistance is spent in generating heat in the lubricant, the volume of which is very small. Were it not for the escape of heat by conduction through the lubricant and the metal, lubrication would be impossible. Hence a knowledge of the empirical law of the variation of the viscosity of the lubricant with temperature, the coefficients of conduction of heat in the lubricant and in the metal, and the application of the theory of the flow of heat in the particular circumstances, are necessary adjuncts to the theory of lubrication for determining the limits of lubrication. Nor is this all, for the shapes of the solid surfaces vary with the pressure, and more particularly with the temperature.

The theory of lubrication has been applied to the explanation of the slipperiness of ice (Mem. Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc., 1899).

(O. R.)

1 Mém. de l’Acad. (1826), 6, p. 389.

2 Mém. des sav. étrang. l. 40.

3 Mém. de l’Acad. (1831), 10, p. 345.

4 B.A. Report (1846).

5 Cambridge Phil. Trans. (1845 and 1857).

LUCAN [Marcus Annaeus Lucanus], (A.D. 39-65), Roman poet of the Silver Age, grandson of the rhetorician Seneca and nephew of the philosopher, was born at Corduba. His mother was Acilia; his father, Marcus Annaeus Mela, had amassed great wealth as imperial procurator for the provinces. From a memoir which is generally attributed to Suetonius we learn that Lucan was taken to Rome at the age of eight months and displayed remarkable precocity. One of his instructors was the Stoic philosopher, Cornutus, the friend and teacher of Persius. He was studying at Athens when Nero recalled him to Rome and made him quaestor. These friendly relations did not last long. Lucan is said to have defeated Nero in a public poetical contest; Nero forbade him to recite in public, and the poet’s indignation made him an accomplice in the conspiracy of Piso. Upon the discovery of the plot he is said to have been tempted by the hope of pardon to denounce his own mother. Failing to obtain a reprieve, he caused his veins to be opened, and expired repeating a passage from one of his poems descriptive of the death of a wounded soldier. His father was involved in the proscription, his mother escaped, and his widow Polla Argentaria survived to receive the homage of Statius under Domitian. The birthday of Lucan was kept as a festival after his death, and a poem addressed to his widow upon one of these occasions and containing information on the poet’s work and career is still extant (Statius’s Silvae, ii. 7, entitled Genethliacon Lucani).

Besides his principal performance, Lucan’s works included poems on the ransom of Hector, the nether world, the fate of Orpheus, a eulogy of Nero, the burning of Rome, and one in honour of his wife (all mentioned by Statius), letters, epigrams, an unfinished tragedy on the subject of Medea and numerous miscellaneous pieces. His minor works have perished except for a few fragments, but all that the author wrote of the Pharsalia has come down to us. It would probably have concluded with the battle of Philippi, but breaks off abruptly as Caesar is about to plunge into the harbour of Alexandria. The Pharsalia opens with a panegyric of Nero, sketches the causes of the war and the characters of Caesar and Pompey, the crossing of the Rubicon by Caesar, the flight of the tribunes to his camp, and the panic and confusion in Rome, which Pompey has abandoned. The second book describes the visit of Brutus to Cato, who is persuaded to join the side of the senate, and his marriage a second time to his former wife Marcia, Ahenobarbus’s capitulation at Corfinium and the retirement of Pompey to Greece. In the third book Caesar, after settling affairs in Rome, crosses the Alps for Spain. Massilia is besieged and falls. The fourth book describes the victories of Caesar in Spain over Afranius and Petreius, and the defeat of Curio by Juba in Africa. In the fifth Caesar and Antony land in Greece, and Pompey’s wife Cornelia is placed in security at Lesbos. The sixth book describes the repulses of Caesar round Dyrrhachium, the seventh the defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia, the eighth his flight and assassination in Egypt, the ninth the operations of Cato in Africa and his march through the desert, and the landing of Caesar in Egypt, the tenth the opening incidents of the Alexandrian war. The incompleteness of the work should not be left out of account in the estimate of its merits, for, with two capital exceptions, the faults of the Pharsalia are such as revision might have mitigated or rendered. No such pains, certainly, could have amended the deficiency of unity of action, or supplied the want of a legitimate protagonist. The Pharsalia is not true to history, but it cannot shake off its shackles, and is rather a metrical chronicle than a true epic. If it had been completed according to the author’s design, Pompey, Cato and Brutus must have successively enacted the part of nominal hero, while the real hero is the arch-enemy of liberty and Lucan, Caesar. Yet these defects, though glaring, are not fatal or peculiar to Lucan. The false taste, the strained rhetoric, the ostentatious erudition, the tedious harangues and far-fetched or commonplace reflections so frequent in this singularly unequal poem, are faults much more irritating, but they are also faults capable of amendment, which the writer might not improbably have removed. Great allowance should also be made in the case of one who is emulating predecessors who have already carried art to its last perfection. Lucan’s temper could never have brooked mere imitation; his versification, no less than his subject, is entirely his own; he avoids the appearance of outward resemblance to his great predecessor with a persistency which can only have resulted from deliberate purpose, but he is largely influenced by the declamatory school of his grandfather and uncle. Hence his partiality for finished antithesis, contrasting strongly with his generally breathless style and turbid diction. Quintilian sums up both aspects of his genius with pregnant brevity, “Ardens et concitatus et sententiis clarissimus,” adding with equal justice, “Magis oratoribus quam poetis annumerandus.” Lucan’s oratory, however, frequently approaches the regions of poetry, e.g. the apotheosis of Pompey at the beginning of the ninth book, and the passage in the same book where Cato, in the truest spirit of the Stoic philosophy, refuses to consult the oracle of Jupiter Ammon. Though in many cases Lucan’s rhetoric is frigid, hyperbolical, and out of keeping with the character of the speaker, yet his theme has a genuine hold upon him; in the age of Nero he celebrates the republic as a poet with the same energy with which in the age of Cicero he might have defended it as an orator. But for him it might almost have been said that the Roman republic never inspired the Roman muse.

Lucan never speaks of himself, but his epic speaks for him. He must have been endowed with no common ambition, industry and self-reliance, an enthusiastic though narrow and aristocratic patriotism, and a faculty for appreciating magnanimity in others. But the only personal trait positively known to us is his conjugal affection, a characteristic of Seneca also.

Lucan, together with Statius, was preferred even to Virgil in the middle ages. So late as 1493 his commentator Sulpitius writes: “Magnus profecto est Maro, magnus Lucanus; adeoque prope par, ut quis sit major possis ambigere.” Shelley and Southey, in the first transport of admiration, thought Lucan superior to Virgil; Pope, with more judgment, says that the fire which burns in Virgil with an equable glow breaks forth in Lucan with sudden, brief and interrupted flashes. Of late, notwithstanding the enthusiasm of isolated admirers, Lucan has been unduly neglected, but he has exercised an important influence upon one great department of modern literature by his effect upon Corneille, and through him upon the classical French drama.