In his writings he is frequently brilliant and original; but his education and training, whether in philosophy or biology, were not sufficiently thorough to give him a place as a master in either.  L.’s life was in its latter section influenced by his irregular connection with Miss Evans ("George Eliot"), with whom he lived for the last 24 years of it, in close intellectual sympathy.  To his appreciation and encouragement were largely due her taking up prose fiction.

LEWIS, SIR GEORGE CORNEWALL (1806-1863).—­Scholar and statesman, s. of Sir Thomas F.L., a Radnorshire baronet, was ed. at Eton and Oxf.  He studied law, was called to the Bar in 1831, and entered Parliament in 1847, where his intellect and character soon gained him great influence.  After serving on various important commissions and holding minor offices, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer 1855-58, Home Sec. 1859-61, and War Sec. 1861-63.  His official labours did not prevent his entering into profound and laborious studies, chiefly in regard to Roman history, and the state of knowledge among the ancients.  In his Inquiry into the Credibility of Ancient Roman History (1855), he combated the methods and results of Niebuhr.  Other works are On the Use and Abuse of Political Terms, Authority in Matters of Opinion, The Astronomy of the Ancients, and a Dialogue on the best Form of Government.  The somewhat sceptical turn of his mind led him to sift evidence minutely, and the labour involved in his wide range of severe study and his public duties no doubt shortened his valuable life.

LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY (1775-1818).—­Novelist, s. of Matthew L., Deputy Sec. in the War Office, was ed. at Westminster and Oxf.  Thereafter he went to Germany.  From his childhood tales of witchcraft and the supernatural had a powerful fascination for him, and in Germany he had ample opportunities for pursuing his favourite study, with the result that at the age of 20 he became the author of The Monk, a tale in which the supernatural and the horrible predominate to an unprecedented extent, and from which he is known as “Monk L.”  The same characteristic appears in all his works, among which may be mentioned Tales of Terror (1779), Tales of Wonder (to which Sir W. Scott contributed), and Romantic Tales (1808).  Though affected and extravagant in his manners, L. was not wanting in kindly and generous feelings, and in fact an illness contracted on a voyage to the West Indies to inquire into and remedy some grievances of the slaves on his estates there was the cause of his death.