Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/254

 LE GALLIENNE

LELAND

early age attracted attention by his poetry. In 1857 he became one of the editors of the Magasin pittoresque, and he was later on the editorial staff of the Revue de V instruction publique and the Revue des Deux Mondes. He translated Lucretius and Vergil s Bucolics, edited Voltaire and Diderot, and published several historical works and volumes of verse (La flilte de Pan, 1861 ; La lyre intime, 1864, etc.). Lefevre, a zealous Eationalist, contributed to the Eationalist periodicals La libre pensde and La pensee nouvelle, and wrote La renaissance du materialisme (1881) and La religion (1891).

LE GALLIENNE, Richard, poet. B. Jan. 20, 1866. Ed. Liverpool College. After seven years in the office of a chartered accountant, and a short period as secretary to Wilson Barrett, he turned to letters and journalism, beginning with My Lady s Sbnncts (1887). In 1891 he became literary critic of the Star. He has edited Omar Khayyam and other works, and written many volumes of verse and literary criti cism. His views on religion are fully given in his Religion of a Literary Man (1893).

Those who want to believe in a future life may do so,&quot; he concedes (p. 54). He thinks that &quot; organized Christianity has probably done more to retard the ideals that were its Founder s than any other agency in the world &quot; (p. 61), and that &quot; soon, maybe, we shall need no Churches.&quot; See also his If I Were God (1897).

LEIDY, Professor Joseph, M.D., LL.D., American biologist. B. Sep. 9, 1823. Ed. Pennsylvania University. In 1844 he was appointed assistant in E. Hare s chemical laboratory, in 1846 demonstrator of anatomy in Franklin College, in 1847 prosector to the professor of anatomy at Pennsylvania University, in 1852 professor of anatomy at the same, in 1871 professor of natural history at Swarthmore College, and in 1884 Director of the Department of Biology at Pennsylvania University. Leidy held the Lyell Medal of the London Geological

435

Society, and was a member of the Ameri can Academy of Sciences and many other learned bodies. He published more than 800 papers, and many volumes on biology and palaeontology. E. A. Proctor quotes him in Knowledge (Oct. 1, 1888, p. 281) as declaring that the facts of science make it difficult to believe in personal immortality. Sir William Osier (who thinks Leidy &quot; one of the greatest naturalists of America &quot;) describes him as Agnostic. &quot; I have often heard him say,&quot; he tells us, &quot; that the question of a future state had long ceased to interest him &quot; (Science and Immortality, p. 41). D. Apr. 30, 1891.

LEIGHTON, Gerald, M.D., F.E.S.E., L.E.C.P., pathologist. B. Dec. 12, 1868. Ed. Nelson (N.Z.) College, Manchester Grammar School, and Edinburgh Univer sity. After a few years in medical practice, he devoted himself to zoology and com parative pathology. In 1902 he was appointed professor of pathology at the Edinburgh Eoyal Veterinary College, and in the same year he founded The Field Naturalist s Quarterly. Until 1915, when he undertook war work, he was Inspector of Abattoirs and Dairies under the Scottish Local Government Board. He has written a number of works on zoology and patho logy. In The Greatest Lie (1908) he warmly expresses his dissent from the creeds, though he pleads for &quot; a scientific Christianity.&quot; His system is a blend of a- liberal Theism with an admiration of the ethic of Christ. He thinks that &quot; the modern religious mind, which is at the same time scientific, has the opportunity of reaching an infinitely grander conception of the universe than was ever possible before &quot; (p. 92), and he holds that the nature of the &quot;soul&quot; is unknowable.

LELAND, Charles Godfrey (&quot;Hans Breitmann &quot;), American humorist. B. Aug. 15, 1824. Ed. Princeton, Heidelberg, Munich, and Paris Universities. Leland was one of the American delegates who congratulated Paris on the Eevolution of 436