LULLY, RAYMUND, surnamed the Eulightened Doctor,' waa born at Palma, in the island of Majorca, iu 1234. In early life he followed his paternal profession of arms in the service of the king of Aragon, and abaudoned himself to all the licence of a soldier's life. Passing from extreme to extreme, Lully subsequently retired to a desert, where he pursued a life of solitude and rigorous asceticism. Here he pretended to have had visions, and, among othere, a mani festation of Christ on the cross, who called him to his service and the conversion of the Mohammedans.
Hereupon Lully divided all his property among the poor; and in his thirtieth year he began to prepare himself, by diligent study, for the labours and duties of a missionary. Learning Arabic from a slave, he read in that language several philosophical works, the perusal of which, in all probability, suggested those new views of grammar and dialectics by means of which he hoped to reform science, and thereby the world itself. Full of this idea he had a second vision of the Saviour in the semblance of a fiery seraph, by whom be was expressly enjoined to commit to writing and to publish the treatise, to which he himself gave the name of Are Lully,' but which his followers and admirers dignified by the title of the Great Art' (` Are Magna'). Having besought James of Aragon to establish a monastery at Majorca for the education of thirteen monks in the Arabic language and the duties of missionaries, he went to Rome to seek the countenance of Pope Honorius IV. for similar iustitutions and his own mission. Receiving however little encouragement, he visited Paris and Genoa with the same design, and with similar success. From Genoa he crossed to Africa, where he was in danger of losing his life in cense queues of his dispute with a Mohammedan whom he sought to convert, but was saved by the intercession of an Arabian mufti, on the condition of quitting Africa for ever. This promise however ho subsequently considered not to be binding upon him ; for after revisiting Italy, and in vain seeking to excite sympathy and co-operation in his designs, he reassumed, unassisted, his enthusiastic enterprise. Proceeding first to Cyprus and thence to Africa, he was nearly stoned to death ; and being cast into prison, owed his liberty to the generosity of some Genoese merchants.
Upon his return to Europe Lully visited its principal cities, preaching the necessity of a crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land, a plan of which he laid before Pope Clement V., by whom it was received with little or no favour. Unchecked however by so many disappointments, and with the ardour of his enthusiasm still unabated, Lully returned a third time to Africa, where his zeal for conversion entailed upon him dreadful torments, from which he was a second time rescued by tho generosity of the Genoese. The sufferings however to which ho had
been exposed were so great, that Lully died on his passage home when he was just within sight of his native country in the year 1315.
The 'Ars Magna Lull,' or the 'Lull= Art,' which found a few admirers, who styled themselves Lullista, after its inventor, and was subsequently revived and improved by the celebrated Giordauo Bruno, is an attempt to give a formal arrangement of all ideas, with a view as well to facilitate instruction as to systematiao knowledge. The means which this logical machine employe are-1. Letters (alphabetutu artea) which stand for certain general terms common to all scieuces, but especially to logic, metaphysics, ethics, and theology. 2. Figures, namely, triangles, squares, and circles, which indicate the relations of those general terms. 3. Sections (camerae), is which the combinations of these ideas or terms are formed by the adjustment of the figures. In the angular spaces of the triangles and squares certain predicates are inscribed, and certain subjects on the circles. On the circle of subjects, the triangles of the predicates being so fixed as to move freely, every possible combination of ideas is supposed to be produced by their revolution, according as the angular points successively pass before the letter inscribed on the margin of the circle. Hence arise definitions, axioms, and propositions, which vary infinitely according to the different application of general or particular predicates to par ticular or general subjects. As however the ideas which are selected for the fundamental notions of this mechanical logic are purely arbi trary, the knowledge to which it professes to lead must be narrow and limited, and at best it does but furnish a few laws of universal notions for analysis and combination. Nevertheless, as the invention, weak as it ia, was founded on a feeling of the inadequacy of the dialectic of the schools, and as it furnished a weapon for its opponeuts, the name of Raymund Lully has been gratefully placed on the list of the reformers of philosophy. In his personal character he seems to claim more justly our admiration for the iron resolutiou with which, late in life, and for the most part unassisted, ho applied himself to the study of science and philosophy, and for the steady resolution with which he persevered in his scheme of converting the heathen in despite of all discouragements and disappointment.
The works of Lully have been edited by Salzinger, Raymondi Lullii opera orunia,' in 10 vole. fob, Mayenco, 1721-42.