  To complete earlier studies of the properties of the electric pygmy dipole
resonance (PDR) obtained in various nuclear reactions, the excitation of the
1$^-$ states in $^{140}$Ce by $(e,e')$ scattering for momentum transfers
$q=0.1-1.2$~fm$^{-1}$ is calculated within the plane-wave and distorted-wave
Born approximations. The excited states of the nucleus are described within the
Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (QRPA), but also within the
Quasiparticle-Phonon Model (QPM) by accounting for the coupling to complex
configurations. It is demonstrated that the excitation mechanism of the PDR
states in $(e,e')$ reactions is predominantly of transversal nature for
scattering angles $\theta_e \approx 90^o-180^o$. Being thus mediated by the
convection and spin nuclear currents, the $(e,e')$ like the $(\gamma,\gamma')$
reaction, may provide additional information to the one obtained from Coulomb-
and hadronic excitations of the PDR in $(p,p')$, $(\alpha,\alpha')$, and
heavy-ion scattering reactions. The calculations predict that the $(e,e')$
cross sections for the strongest individual PDR states are in general about
three orders of magnitude smaller as compared to the one of the lowest $2^+_1$
state for the studied kinematics, but that they may become dominant at extreme
backward angles.
