DANIEL LE (1652-1728), an eminent French physician of great learning, was born at Geneva. He is best known by his very valuable Histoire de la Médecine, in three parts, in which he has traced the healing art from its earliest dawn to the time of Galen and the end of the second century. He did not live to finish, as he intended, the more modern history of medicine.

Jean le (1657-1736), an eminent scholar and biblical critic, was born at Geneva, where his uncle was professor of Hebrew. He became early distinguished for his attainments in classical literature; and after studying under Mestrezat and Turcette, he was ordained at Geneva in 1679. His opinions, however, were more in accordance with the views of Currellius and Episcopius—a circumstance which led him to retire from Geneva to Grenoble, and afterwards to Paris. After a short visit to England he removed to Amsterdam, where in 1684 he became professor of philosophy, belles-lettres, and Hebrew, in the Reformed College. In 1723, while lecturing, he lost the use of his speech through a paralytic stroke; and his memory failing, he lingered on till his death in a state bordering on idiocy. As a critic, Le Clerc may be ranked the first of his time; but the Socinianizing tendency of his views estranged him from the great mass of Protestant divines. His polemical works in general betray a somewhat bitter and dogmatic tone, while his miscellaneous writings bear the marks of hasty composition.

His works are exceedingly voluminous. The best known are his Latin commentaries on several books of the Bible; his Ars Critica; Harmonia Evangelica; Translation of the New Testament into French; Traité de l'Incrédulité; and the Parrhasiana, ou Pensées diverses sur les Matières de Critique, d'Histoire, de Morale, et de Politique. Besides these he edited the Bibliothèque Historique et Universelle, 26 vols.; the Bibliothèque Choix, 28 vols.; and the Bibliothèque Ancienne et Moderne, 29 vols. He also published several editions of the ancient classics.

Sebastian le (1637-1714), an eminent French engraver, was born at Metz. After having held the office of engineer to the Marshal de la Ferté, he went to Paris in 1665, and applied himself to designing and engraving with such success, that M. Colbert gave him a pension of 600 crowns. In 1672 he was admitted into the royal academy of painting and sculpture; and in 1680 was made professor of geometry and perspective in the same academy. Besides a vast number of designs and prints, he published A Treatise on Theoretical and Practical Geometry, A Treatise on Architecture, and other works. Le Clerc was an excellent artist, and his smaller works, in which he was most successful, are only equalled by the engravings of Callot and Della Bella. His most esteemed prints are, 1. The Passion of our Saviour, on 36 small plates; 2. The Miracle of Feeding the Five Thousand; 3. The Elevation of the large Stones used in Building the Front of the Louvre; 4. The Academy of the Sciences, a middle-sized plate, lengthwise; 5. The May of the Gobelins, a middle-sized plate, lengthwise; 6. The Four Conquests, large plates, lengthwise, representing the taking of Tournay, the taking of Douay, the defeat of the Comte de Marsin, and the Switzerland Alliance; 7. The Battles of Alexander, from Le Brun, six small long plates, including the title, which represents the picture gallery at the Gobelins; and 8. The Entry of Alexander into Babylon, a middle-sized plate, lengthwise, in the first impressions of which the face of Alexander is seen in profile, but in the second it is a three-quarter face, and therefore called the print with the head turned.