Langsdorf (Karl Christian), German Deist, b. 18 May, 1757, author of God and Nature, a work on the immortality of the soul, and some mathematical books. Died Heidelberg, 10 June, 1834. Lankester (Edwin Ray), F.R.S., LL.D., English scientist, b. London, 15 May, 1847, and educated at St. Paul's School and Oxford. Has published many scientific memoirs, revised the translation of Haeckel's History of Creation, and has done much to forward evolutionary ideas. In 1876 he exposed the spiritist medium Slade, and procured his conviction. He is Professor of Zoology and Natural History in the University of London. La Place (Pierre Simon). One of the greatest astronomers, b. Beaumont-en-Auge, 23 March, 1749. His father was a poor peasant. Through the influence of D'Alembert, La Place became professor of mathematics in the military school, 1768. By his extraordinary abilities he became in 1785 member of the Academy of Science, which he enriched with many memoirs. In 1796 he published his Exposition of the System of the Universe, a popularisation of his greater work on Celestial Mechanics, 1799-1825. Among his sayings were, "What we know is but little, what we know not is immense." "There is no need for the hypothesis of a God." Died Paris, 5 March, 1827. Larevelliere-Lepaux (Louis Marie DE), French politician, b. Montaigu 25 Aug. 1753. Attached from youth to the ideas of Rousseau, he was elected with Volney to represent Angers in the national assembly. He was a moderate Republican, defended the proscribed Girondins, was doomed himself but escaped by concealment, and distinguished himself by seeking to replace Catholicism with theophilanthropy or natural religion. He wrote Reflections on Worship and the National Fêtes. He became President of the Directory, and after the 18 Brumaire retired, refusing to swear fealty to the empire though offered a pension by Napoleon. Died Paris, 27 March, 1824. Larousse (Pierre Athanase), French lexicographer, b. of poor parents, 23 Oct. 1817, at Toucy, Yonne, where he became teacher. He edited many school books and founded the Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXe. Siecle, 1864-77. This is a collection of dictionaries, and may be called the Encyclopedie of this century. Most of M. Larousse's colleagues were also Freethinkers. Died at Paris, 3 Jan. 1875.