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LAGUNA, or LA LAGUNA

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 80 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LAGUNA, or LA LAGUNA , an episcopal See also:city and formerly the See also:capital of the See also:island of See also:Teneriffe, in the See also:Spanish See also:archipelago of the See also:Canary Islands. Pop. (1900) 13,074. Laguna is 4 M. N. by W. of See also:Santa Cruz, in a See also:plain 1800 ft. above See also:sea-level, surrounded by mountains. See also:Snow is unknown here, and the mean See also:annual temperature exceeds 63° F.; but the rainfall is very heavy, and in See also:winter the plain is sometimes flooded. The humidity of the See also:atmosphere, combined with the warm See also:climate and See also:rich volcanic See also:soil, renders the See also:district exceptionally fertile; See also:wheat, See also:wine and See also:tobacco, oranges and other fruits, are produced in abundance. Laguna is the favourite summer See also:residence of the wealthier inhabitants of Santa Cruz. Besides the See also:cathedral, the city contains several picturesque convents, now secularized, a See also:fine See also:modern See also:town See also:hall, hospitals, a large public library and some See also:ancient palaces of the Spanish See also:nobility. Even the modern buildings have often an See also:appearance of antiquity, owing to the decay caused by See also:damp, and the luxuriant growth of climbing See also:plants. LA HARPE, See also:JEAN See also:FRANCOIS DE (1739—1803), See also:French critic, was See also:born in See also:Paris of poor parents on the loth of See also:November 1739. His See also:father, who signed himself Delharpe, was a descendant of a See also:noble See also:family originally of See also:Vaud.

See also:

Left an See also:orphan at the See also:age of nine, La Harpe was taken care of for six months by the sisters of charity, and his See also:education was provided for by a scholarship at the See also:College d'See also:Harcourt. When nineteen he was imprisoned for some months on the See also:charge of having written a See also:satire against his protectors at the college. La Harpe always denied his See also:guilt, but this culminating misfortune of an See also:early See also:life spent entirely in the position of a dependent had possibly something to do with the bitterness he evinced in later life. In 1763 his tragedy of See also:Warwick was played before the See also:court. This, his first See also:play, was perhaps the best he ever wrote. The many authors whom he afterwards offended were always able to observe that the critic's own plays did not reach the See also:standard of excellence he set up. See also:Timoleon (1764), Pharamond (1765) and Gustave Wasa (1766) were failures. Melanie was a better play, but was never represented. The success of Warwick led to 'a See also:correspondence with See also:Voltaire, who conceived a high See also:opinion of La Harpe, even allowing him to correct his verses. In 1764 La Harpe married the daughter of a See also:coffee See also:house keeper. This See also:marriage, which proved very unhappy and was dissolved, did not improve his position. They were very poor, and for some See also:time were guests of Voltaire at .Ferney.

When, after Voltaire's See also:

death, La Harpe in his praise of the philosopher ventured on some reasonable, but rather See also:ill-timed, See also:criticism of individual See also:works, he was accused of treachery to one who had been his See also:constant friend. In 1768 he returned from Ferney to Paris, where he began to write for the Mercure. He was a born fighter and had small See also:mercy on the authors whose See also:work he handled. But he was himself violently attacked, and suffered under many epigrams, especially those of See also:Lebrun-Pindare. No more striking See also:proof of the See also:general hostility can be given than his reception (1776) at the See also:Academy, which Sainte-Beuve calls his " See also:execution." See also:Marmontel, who received him, used the occasion to eulogize La Harpe's predecessor, See also:Charles See also:Pierre Colardeau, especially for his pacific, modest and indulgent disposition. The speech was punctuated by the See also:applause of the See also:audience, who See also:chose to regard it as a See also:series of sarcasms on the new member. Eventually La Harpe was compelled to resign from the Mercure, which he had edited from 1770. On the See also:stage he produced See also:Les See also:Barmecides (1778), Philoctele, Jeanne de See also:Naples (1780, Les Brames (1783), Ccriolan (1784), Virginie (x786). In 1786 he began a course of literature at the newly-established Lycee. In these lectures, published as the Cours de /literature ancienne et moderne, La Harpe is at his best, for he found a standpoint more or less See also:independent of contemporary polemics. He is said to be inexact in dealing with the ancients, and he had only a superficial knowledge of the See also:middle ages, but he is excellent in his See also:analysis of 17th-See also:century writers. Sainte-Beuve found in him the best critic of the French school of tragedy, which reached its perfection in See also:Racine.

La Harpe was a See also:

disciple of the " philosophes "; he supported the extreme party through the excesses of 1792 and 1793. In 1793 he edited the Mercure de See also:France which adhered blindly to the revolutionary leaders. But in See also:April 1794 he was nevertheless seized as a " suspect." In See also:prison he underwent a spiritual crisis which he described in convincing See also:language, and he emerged an ardent See also:Catholic and a reactionist in politics. When he resumed his See also:chair at the Lycee, he attacked his former See also:friends in politics and literature. He was imprudent enough to begin the publication (18or–1807) of his Correspondance lilteraire (1774–1791) with the See also:grand-See also:duke, afterwards the See also:emperor See also:Paul of See also:Russia. In these letters he surpassed the brutalities of the Mercure. He contracted a second marriage, which was dissolved after a few See also:weeks by his wife. He died on the rrth of See also:February 1803 in Paris, leaving in his will an incongruous exhortation to his See also:fellow countrymen to maintain See also:peace and See also:concord. Among his See also:posthumous works was a Propizetie de See also:Cazotte which Sainte-Beuve pronounces his best work. It is a sombre description of a See also:dinner-party of notables See also:long before the Revolution, when Jacques Cazotte is made to prophesy the frightful fates awaiting the various individuals of the See also:company. Among his works not already mentioned are:—Commentaire sur Racine (1795–1796), published in 1807; Commentaire sur le See also:theatre de Voltaire of earlier date (published posthumously in 1814), and an epic poem La See also:Religion (1814). His Cours de liteerature has been often reprinted.

To the edition of 1825–1826 is prefixed a See also:

notice by Pierre See also:Daunou. See also Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. v.; G. Peignot, Recherches historiques, bibliographiques et litteraires .. . sur La Harpe (182o).

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