Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/466

 446 L E N L E N Histoire dc la Guerre des Hussites ct du Concilc de Basle (Amst., 1731 ; German translation, Vienna, 1783-84). Lenfant was one of the chief promoters of the Bibliotheque Gcrmaniquc, begun in 1720 ; and he was associated with Beausobre in the preparation of the new French translation of the New Testament with original notes, published at Amsterdam in 1718. LENKORAN, a town in Trans-Caucasia, on the Caspian, at the mouth of a small stream of its own name, and close to a great lagoon. The lighthouse stands in 38 45 38 7 N. lat., and 48 50 18&quot; E. long. Taken by storm on New Year s day 1813 by General Kotliareski, Lenkoran was in the same year surrendered by Persia to Russia by the treaty of Gulistan along with the khanate of Talysh, of which it was the capital. In 1867 it had a population of 15,933 ; but according to the census of 1873 there were only 4779 inhabitants (734 Russians, 232 Armenians). The fort has been dismantled ; and in trade the town is being far outstripped by Astara, the custom-house station on the Persian frontier. The district of Lenkoran (2078 square miles), correspond ing to the khanate of Talysh, is highly interesting from its physical peculiarities. It is a thickly wooded mountainous region, shut off from the dry Persian plateau by the Talysh range (7000-8000 feet high), and with a narrow marshy strip along the coast. The climate is exceptionally moist and warm (annual rainfall 52 79 inches ; mean temperature in summer 75, in winter 40), and fosters the growth of even Indian forms of vegetation. The iron tree (Parrotia persica, C. A. Meyer), the silk acacia, Carpinus Betuhis, Quercus iberica, the box tree, and the walnut flourish freely, as well as the sumach, the pomegranate, and the Gleditchia caspica. The Bengal tiger is not unfrequently met with, and wild boars are abundant. Of the 95,482 inhabitants of Lenkoran, the Talyshians (42,999) form the most interesting and aboriginal element, belonging as they do to the Iranian family, and speaking an independently developed language closely related to Persian. They are of middle height and dark complexion, with generally straight nose, small round skull, small sharp chin, and large full eyes, which are expressive, however, rather of cunning than intelligence. They live exclusively on rice. In the northern half of the district the Tartar element predomi nates, and there are a number of villages (Pravolnoye, for instance, with 2000 inhabitants) occupied by various Russian sectarians. LENNEP, a small town of Rhenish Prussia in. the district of Diisseldorf, is situated 18 miles east of Diisseldorf and 9 miles south of Barmen, at a height of 1050 feet above the level of the sea. It lies in the heart of one of the busiest industrial districts in Germany, and carries on important manufactures of the finer kinds of cloth, wool, yarn, felt, and other articles. It is the seat of a small chamber of commerce, and possesses a large and well-equipped hospital. Lennep, which was the residence of the counts of Berg from 1226 to 1300, owes the founda tion of its prosperity to an influx of Cologne weavers during the 14th century. Population (1880) 8077, about one- fourth of whom are Roman Catholics. LENNEP, JACOB VAN (1802-1868), Dutch poet and novelist, was born March 24, 1802, at Amsterdam, where his father, David Jacob van Lennep, who also became known as a scholar and poet, was professor of eloquence and the classical languages in the Athenaeum. Lennep received his education partly in his native city and partly at Ley den, studying jurisprudence at the latter, and ulti mately obtaining the degree of doctor of laws ; he then settled as an advocate in Amsterdam. His first poetical efforts had been translations from Byron, of whom he was an ardent admirer, and in 1826 he published a collection of original Academic Idylls which had a modi fied success. He first attained genuine popularity by the Nederlandsche Legenden, which reproduced after the manner of Sir W. Scott, though without much psycho logical depth or literal accuracy, some of the more stirring incidents in the early history of his fatherland. His fame was further raised to a very high pitch by his comedies Het Dorp aan die Grcnzen and Het Dorp over die Grenzen, which had reference to the political events of 1830. In 1829 he had broken ground in a new and hitherto untried field with the publication of De Pleeyzoon (&quot;The Adopted Son,&quot; 1829), the first of a series of historical romances in prose, which have acquired for him in Holland a position somewhat analogous to that which Scott holds throughout the reading world. The series included De Eoos van Dekama (1837), Onze Voorouders (1838), Ferdinand Iluyck (1840), Elizabeth Musch (1850), and De Lotyevallen van Klaasje Zevenster (1866), several of which have been trans lated into German and French, and two (&quot; The Rose of Dekama &quot; and &quot;The Adopted Son&quot;) into English. In a closely connected department of literature, his Dutch history for young people (Gescriiedenis van Noord-Nederland aa?i mijne Kindern verhaald) is attractively written. Apart from the two comedies already mentioned, Lennep was the author of numerous dramatic pieces which have found much acceptance on the Dutch stage. For some years Lennep held a judicial appointment, and from 1853 to 1856 he was a member of the second chamber, in which he voted with the Conservative party. He died at Ooster- beek near Arnheim, on August 25, 1868. There is a collective edition of his Poetische Werken (13 vols., 1859- 1872), and also of his Romantische Werken (23 vols., 1855-1872). LENT (lenten, hnte, from A. S. lencten, spring ; comp, Du. lente, Germ, lenz), the ecclesiastical season known in the early Greek Church as reo-crapaKoo-T?/ (afterwards as rj vrjo-Teia), and in the Latin Church, from at least the 4th century, as Quadragesima. 1 Irenasus, in a passage which, though not free from difficulties, is yet clear enough in its general scope (apud Euseb., //. E., v. 24), mentions that the custom of keeping a fast before Easter Sunday was quite old even in his day, but that no uniformity of observance had up to that time been established, some thinking they ought to fast for one day, others for two days, and others having further peculiarities. In Tertullian s day the Good Friday fast at all events was &quot; communis et quasi publica jejunii religio&quot; (De Orat., c. 18), and elsewhere (De Jejun. 2) he indicates his opinion that Christians ought to commemorate by a religious fast all the time during which &quot; the bridegroom was taken away from them.&quot; This period of fasting was gradually extended, but still without uniformity of praxis. The diversity of usage covered by a common name is referred toby Socrates (II. E., v. 22) as a source of perplexity to him. He tells us that in Rome the custom was to fast three continuous weeks before Easter, Saturdays and Sundays not being included ; that in Illyria, Greece, and Alexandria the period of abstinence called TecrcrapaKoo-TTj extended over six weeks ; and that in some other places, which he does not specify, the custom was to begin the fast seven weeks before Easter, but actually to observe it at intervals only for three periods of five days each, and nevertheless still to call it Teo-o-apa/cco-T^. Cassi- anus (Coll 21, 5) calls attention to the fact that a fast of seven wesks, when Saturdays and Sundays, except Holy Saturday, are excluded as they ought to be, means a fast of thirty-six days in all, i.e., a tithe of the year, an idea which seems to have found wide acceptance. Leo I. (Serm. 44) alludes to the fast of forty days as having apostolic 1 Literally, it would seem, the fortieth day before Easter (comp. Sexagesima, Septuagesima). From Quadragesima comes the Italian quaresima, Spanish cuaresma, French cartme.