Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/388

 382 LEWES LEWIS and "Problems of Life and Mind," of which but one volume, on "The Foundations of a Creed," has as yet been published (London, 1874). It may be inferred from this volume that Mr. Lewes intends the " Problems of Life and Mind " to include a very full exposition of his own philosophical opinions, and it would seem that he designs it when completed to be the exponent of his matured views. In his philosophical writings throughout, Mr. Lewes has attached but small value to merely meta- physical investigation and conjecture, but has advocated devotion to the study of problems from which results of more positive value may be expected, and to which truly scientific meth- ods may be applied. He maintains, however, in " The Foundations of a Creed," that many problems have been hitherto classed as meta- physical which are really to be investigated by these methods ; and advises a new distinction in philosophical study, substituting the terms "empirical" and " metempirical " for "physi- cal" and "metaphysical." Apart from his philosophical works Mr. Lewes's most widely known book is his "Life of GoetheJ' (1855 ; new ed., partly rewritten, 1873). His other works, both in philosophy and general litera- ture, include " Kanthorpe, a Tale " (1847) ; " The Spanish Drama : Lope de Vega and Cal- deron" (1848); "Rose, Blanche, and Yiolet," a novel (1848) ; "Life of Robespierre " (1850) ; " The Noble Heart," a tragedy (1850) ; " Com- te's Philosophy of the Sciences " (1853) ; " Sea- side Studies " (1858) ; "Physiology of Common Life " (1860) ; " Studies in Animal Life " (1861) ; and " Aristotle : a Chapter from the History of Science," with analyses of Aristotle's scientific writings (1864; new ed., 1873). II. Marian Evans, wife of the preceding, an English au- thor, most widely known under her nom de plume of GEORGE ELIOT, born in Warwick- shii^ about 1820. Her first work, " Scenes of Clerical Life," originally appeared in "Black- wood's Magazine " in 1857, and was published in book form in London in 1858. It was fol- lowed by "Adam Bede " (1859), which at once secured for its author a place among the first of English novelists, and formed the be- ginning of a series of works each one of which has confirmed Mrs. Lewes in the high position which criticism has almost universally allotted to her. " The Mill on the Floss " appeared in 1860; "Silas Marner" in 1861; "Romola" (first published as a serial in the " Cornhill Magazine") in 1863; "Felix Holt, the Radi- cal," in 1866; and "Middlemarch," the latest and one of the most remarkable of her prose works, in 1871. She translated Strauss's "Life of Jesus" (1846), and Feuerbach's "Essence of Christianity " (1854). Her poetical works are "The Spanish Gypsy" (1868), and "The Le- gend of Jubal " (1874). Mrs. Lewes was for a time associate editor of the "Westminster Review." Among the highest characteristics of " George Eliot " as a writer of fiction is her remarkable power in the delineation, not so much of character already formed, as of its development. Almost unconsciously the reader follows every process in the growth of those strong individual types with which her novels are filled, and sees the logical influence of every circumstance and event brought to bear upon their lives. In all of her works the physical and material difficulties to which her actors are subjected, and all those things which or- dinarily constitute the "plot "of a romance, are, without losing their interest in any way, made completely subordinate to this leading design of picturing the development of the individual character under different conditions. Thus her novels form some of the best ex- amples in the English language of the true carrying out of the highest purpose of fiction. Hardly less important characteristics are her singular skill in seizing and embodying thor- oughly human types of mind and thought, so that each one of her characters becomes a liv- ing representative of some traits which every reader recognizes ; and her power of terse and almost epigrammatic expression, which places her works among that small number from which expressions pass into popular and cur- rent quotation. The subjects of her novels, with the notable exception of " Romola," are generally taken from English village and pro- vincial life. LEM IN, Thomas, an English author, born in 1805. He was educated at Oxford, and be- came a chancery lawyer and conveyancer. He has published "The Law of Trusts;" "The Life and Epistles of St. Paul " (London, 1851) : " Essay on the Chronology of the New Testa- ment" (1854); "Jerusalem, a Sketch of the City and Temple from the earliest Times to the Siege by Titus" (1861); "The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus " (1863) ; and " Fasti Sacri, or a Key to the Chronology of the New Testa- ment" (1865). LEWIS, in mechanics, an ingenious device for securing heavy blocks of stone to the tackle for hoisting. It is said to be named from Louis XIV., under whom the invention was sup- posed to have been first employed. In the ruins of Whitby abbey, however, originally founded in 658, there appear in the crown of the heavy keystones of the arches cavities like those now made in such blocks for the lewis. These are quadrangular, and on two opposite sides spread at the bottom as in dovetailing. Three slips of iron are fitted to fill this hole, all together making a wedge form the head of which is at the bottom of the cavity. The three ends projecting out of the stone present each an eye for a bolt, which is passed through the whole, and serves as a handle for lifting the stone. To remove the lewis, the bolt is driven out, and the key or middle one of the three slips, which is a straight rectangular piece of iron, is readily withdrawn, setting the other two free. LEWIS, the name of six counties in the Uni- ted States. I. A N. county of New York, in-