Berchta, a German Hulda, but of severer type. See Bertha.

Bercy, a commune on the right bank of the Seine, outside Paris, included in it since 1860; is the great mart for wines and brandies.

Bere`ans, a sect formed by John Barclay in 1778, who regard the Bible as the one exclusive revelation of God.

Berenger, or Berenga`rius, of Tours, a distinguished theologian, born at Tours; held an ecclesiastical office there, and was made afterwards archdeacon of Angers; ventured to deny the doctrine of transubstantiation, a denial for which he was condemned by successive councils of the Church, and which he was compelled more than once publicly to retract, though he so often and openly recalled his retractation that the pope, notwithstanding the opposition of the orthodox, deemed it prudent at length to let him alone. After this he ceased to trouble the Church, and retired to an island on the Loire, where he gave himself up to quiet meditation and prayer (998-1088).

Berenger I., king of Italy, grandson of Louis the Débonnaire, an able general; provoked the jealousy of the nobles, who dreaded the abridgment of their rights, which led to his assassination at their hands in 934. B. II., king of Italy, grandson of the preceding, was dethroned twice by the Emperor Otho, who sent him a prisoner to Bamberg, where he died, 966.

Berenger, Thomas, a French criminalist and magistrate (1785-1866).

Bereni`ce, a Jewish widow, daughter of Herod Agrippa, with whom Titus was fascinated, and whom he would have taken to wife, had not the Roman populace protested, from their Anti-Jewish prejudice, against it. The name was a common one among Egyptian as well as Jewish princesses.

Beresford, William Carr, Viscount, an English general, natural son of the first Marquis of Waterford; distinguished himself in many a military enterprise, and particularly in the Peninsular war, for which he was made a peer; he was a member of the Wellington administration, and master-general of the ordnance (1770-1854).

Beresi`na, a Russian river, affluent of the Dnieper, into which it falls after a course of 350 m.; it is serviceable as a water conveyance for large rafts of timber to the open sea, and is memorable for the disastrous passage of the French in their retreat from Moscow in 1812.

Berezov`, a town in Siberia, in the government of Tobolsk; a place of banishment.

Berg, Duchy of, on right bank of the Rhine, between Düsseldorf and Cologne, now part of Prussia; Murat was grand-duke of it by Napoleon's appointment.

Ber`gamo (42), a Lombard town, in a province of the same name, and 34 m. NE. of Milan, with a large annual fair in August, the largest in Italy; has grindstone quarries in the neighbourhood.

Bergasse, French jurisconsult, born at Lyons; celebrated for his quarrel with Beaumarchais; author of an "Essay on Property" (1750-1832).

Bergen (52), the old capital of Norway, on a fjord of the name, open to the Gulf Stream, and never frozen; the town, consisting of wooden houses, is built on a slope on which the streets reach down to the sea, and has a picturesque appearance; the trade, which is considerable, is in fish and fish products; manufactures gloves, porcelain, leather, etc.; the seat of a bishop, and has a cathedral.

Bergen-op-Zoom (11), a town in N. Brabant, once a strong place, and much coveted and frequently contested for by reason of its commanding situation; has a large trade in anchovies.

Ber`genroth, Gustav Adolph, historian, born in Prussia; held a State office, but was dismissed and exiled because of his sympathy with the revolutionary movement of 1848; came to England to collect materials for a history of the Tudors; examined in Simancas, in Spain, under great privations, papers on the period in the public archives; made of these a collection and published it in 1862-68, under the title of "Calendar of Letters, Despatches, &c., relating to Negotiations between England and Spain" (1813-1869).

Bergerac (11), a manufacturing town in France, 60 m. E. of Bordeaux, celebrated for its wines; it was a Huguenot centre, and suffered greatly in consequence.

Bergerac, Savinien Cyrano de, an eccentric man with comic power, a Gascon by birth; wrote a tragedy and a comedy; his best work a fiction entitled "Histoire Comique des États et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil"; fought no end of duels in vindication, it is said, of his preposterously large nose (1619-1655).

Berghaus, Heinrich, a geographer of note, born at Clèves; served in both the French and Prussian armies as an engineer, and was professor of mathematics at Berlin; his "Physical Atlas" is well known (1797-1884).

Berghem, a celebrated landscape-painter of the Dutch school, born at Haarlem (1624-1683).

Bergman, Torbern Olof, a Swedish chemist, studied under Linnæus, and became professor of Chemistry at Upsala; discovered oxalic acid; was the first to arrange and classify minerals on a chemical basis (1735-1784).

Beri, a town in the Punjab, 40 m. NW. of Delhi, in a trading centre.

Berkeley, a town in Gloucestershire, famous for its cattle.

Berkeley, George, bishop of Cloyne, born in Kilkenny; a philanthropic man, who conducted in a self-sacrificing spirit practical schemes for the good of humanity, which failed, but the interest in whom has for long centred, and still centres, in his philosophic teaching, his own interest in which was that it contributed to clear up our idea of God and consolidate our faith in Him, and it is known in philosophy as Idealism; only it must be understood, his idealism is not, as it was absurdly conceived to be, a denial of the existence of matter, but is an assertion of the doctrine that the universe, with every particular in it, as man sees it and knows it, is not the creation of matter but the creation of mind, and a reflex of the Eternal Reason that creates and dwells in both it and him; for as Dr. Stirling says, "the object can only be known in the subject, and therefore is subjective, and if subjective, ideal." The outer, as regards our knowledge of it, is within; such is Berkeley's fundamental philosophical principle, and it is a principle radical to the whole recent philosophy of Europe (1684-1753).

Berkshire (238), a midland county of England, with a fertile, well-cultivated soil on a chalk bottom, in the upper valley of the Thames, one of the smallest but most beautiful counties in the country. In the E. part of it is Windsor Forest, and in the SE. Bagshot Heath. It is famous for its breed of pigs.

Berlichingen, Goetz von, surnamed "The Iron Hand," a brave but turbulent noble of Germany, of the 15th and 16th centuries, the story of whose life was dramatised by Goethe, "to save," as he said, "the memory of a brave man from darkness," and which was translated from the German by Sir Walter Scott.

Berlin` (1,579), capital of Prussia and of the German empire; stands on the Spree, in a flat sandy plain, 177 m. by rail SE. of Hamburg. The royal and imperial palaces, the great library, the university, national gallery and museums, and the arsenal are all near the centre of the city. There are schools of science, art, agriculture, and mining; technical and military academies; a cathedral and some old churches; zoological and botanical gardens. Its position between the Baltic and North Seas, the Spree, the numerous canals and railways which converge on it, render it a most important commercial centre; its staple trade is in grain, cattle, spirits, and wool. Manufactures are extensive and very varied; the chief are woollens, machinery, bronze ware, drapery goods, and beer.

Berlin Decree, a decree of Napoleon of Nov. 21, 1806, declaring Britain in a state of blockade, and vessels trading with it liable to capture.

Berlioz, Hector, a celebrated musical composer and critic, born near Grenoble, in the dep. of Isère, France; sent to study medicine in Paris; abandoned it for music, to which he devoted his life. His best known works are the "Symphonie Fantastique," "Romeo and Juliet," and the "Damnation of Faust"; with the "Symphonie," which he produced while he was yet but a student at the Conservatoire in Paris, Paganini was so struck that he presented him with 20,000 francs (1803-1869).

Ber`mondsey, a busy SE. suburb of London, on the S. bank of the Thames.

Bermoo`thes, the Bermudas.

Bermu`das (15), a group of 400 coral islands (five inhabited) in mid-Atlantic, 677 m. SE. of New York; have a delightful, temperate climate, and are a popular health resort for Americans. They produce a fine arrowroot, and export onions. They are held by Britain as a valuable naval station, and are provided with docks and fortifications.

Bernadotte, Jean Baptiste Jules, a marshal of France, born at Pau; rose from the ranks; distinguished himself in the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, though between him and Napoleon there was constant distrust; adopted by Charles XIII., king of Sweden; joined the Allies as a naturalised Swede in the war against France in alliance with Russia; became king of Sweden himself under the title of Charles XIV., to the material welfare, as it proved, of his adopted country (1764-1844).

Bernard, Claude, a distinguished French physiologist, born at St. Julien; he studied at Paris; was Majendie's assistant and successor in the College of France; discovered that the function of the pancreas is the digestion of ingested fats, that of the liver the transformation into sugar of certain elements in the blood, and that there are nervous centres in the body which act independently of the great cerebro-spinal centre (1813-1878).

Bernard, St., abbot of Clairvaux, born at Fontaines, in Burgundy; pronounced one of the grandest figures in the church militant; studied in Paris, entered the monastery of Citeaux, founded in 1115 a monastery at Clairvaux, in Champagne; drew around him disciples who rose to eminence as soldiers of the cross; prepared the statutes for the Knights-Templar; defeated Abelard in public debate, and procured his condemnation; founded 160 monasteries; awoke Europe to a second crusade; dealt death-blows all round to no end of heretics, and declined all honours to himself, content if he could only awake some divine passion in other men; represented in art as accompanied by a white dog, or as contemplating an apparition of the Virgin and the Child, or as bearing the implements of Christ's passion (1091-1174). Festival, Aug. 20.

Bernard, Simon, a French engineer, born at Dôle; distinguished as such in the service of Napoleon, and for vast engineering works executed in the United States, in the construction of canals and forts (1779-1839).

Bernard of Menthon, an ecclesiastic, founder of the monasteries of the Great and the Little St. Bernard, in the passage of the Alps (923-1008). Festival, June 15.

Bernard of Morlaix, a monk of Cluny, of the 11th century; wrote a poem entitled "De Contemptu Mundi," translated by Dr. Neale, including "Jerusalem the Golden."

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, commonly called Saint-Pierre simply, a celebrated French writer, born at Havre; author of "Paul and Virginia," written on the eve of the Revolution, called by Carlyle "the swan-song of old dying France," (1739-1814).

Bernardine, St., of Siena, born at Massa Carrara, in Italy, of noble family; founder of the Observantines, a branch, and restoration on strict lines, of the Franciscan order; established 300 monasteries of the said branch; his works, written in a mystical vein, fill five folio vols. (1380-1444).

Bernauer, Agnes, wife of Duke Albrecht of Bavaria, whom his father, displeased at the marriage, had convicted of sorcery and drowned in the Danube.

Berne (47), a fine Swiss town on the Aar, which almost surrounds it, in a populous canton of the same name; since 1848 the capital of the Swiss Confederation; commands a magnificent view of the Bernese Alps; a busy trading and manufacturing city.

Berners, John Bouchier, Lord, writer or translator of romance; was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1516, and governor of Calais from 1520; translated Froissart's "Huon of Bordeaux," &c.

Berners, Juliana, writer on hunting and hawking; lived in the 14th century; said to have been prioress of a nunnery.

Bernese Alps, a chain in the Middle Alps, of which the eastern half is called the Bernese Oberland; form the watershed between the Aar and the Rhône.

Bernhard, Duke of Weimar, a great German general; distinguished himself on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' war; fought under the standard of Gustavus Adolphus; held command of the left wing at the battle of Lützen, and completed the victory after the fall of Gustavus; died at Neuburg, as alleged, without sufficient proof, by poison (1604-1639).

Bernhardt, Sarah, a dramatic artiste, born in Paris; of Jewish descent, but baptized as a Christian; distinguished specially as a tragédienne; of abilities qualifying her to shine in other departments of the profession and of art, of which she has given proof; b. 1844.

Berni, Francesco, an Italian poet, born in Tuscany, who excelled in the burlesque, to whom the Italian as a literary language owes much; remodelled Boiardo's "Orlando Innamorato" in a style surpassing that of the original.

Bernier, a French physician and traveller, born at Angers; physician for 12 years to Aurungzebe, the Great Mogul; published "Travels," a work full of interest, and a model of exactitude (1625-1688).

Bernier, The Abbé, born in Mayenne, France; one of the principal authors of the Concordat; promoted afterwards to be Bishop of Orleans (1762-1806).

Berni`na, a mountain in the Swiss canton of Grisons, 13,290 ft. high, remarkable for its extensive glaciers.

Bernini, Giovanni Lorenzo, an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect, born at Naples; produced his "Apollo and Daphne" at eighteen, his masterpiece; was architect to the Pope, and designed the colonnade of St. Peter's; he died wealthy (1598-1680).

Bernouil`li, name of a Swiss family of mathematicians, born at Basel, though of Dutch origin—James, John, and Daniel, of whom John is the most celebrated; was professor first at St. Petersburg and then at Basel; discovered the exponential calculus and the method of integrating rational fractions, as well as the line of swiftest descent (1667-1748).

Bernstorff, Count, a celebrated statesman, diplomatist, and philanthropist of Denmark; called the Danish Oracle by Frederick the Great; founded an Agricultural Society and an hospital at Copenhagen, and obtained the emancipation of the serfs (1711-1772).

Bernstorff, Count, a nephew of the preceding; also statesman and diplomatist (1712-1772).

Bernstorff, Pierre, Danish minister, son of the preceding, a guardian of civil and political liberty (1735-1797).

Bero`sus, a priest of the temple of Belus in Babylon, who, 3rd century B.C., translated into Greek certain records of Babylonish history, valuable fragments of which are preserved by Josephus and Eusebius; these have been collected and published by W. Richter, in Germany.

Berri, an ancient province of France, forms dep. of Indre and Cher, which became crown property in 1100 under Philippe I., and a duchy in 1630, giving title to a succession of French princes.

Berri, Duc de, second son of Charles X. and father of Count de Chambord, a benevolent man; assassinated by a fanatic, Louvel, as he was leaving the Opera House (1778-1820).

Berri, Duchesse de, dowager of preceding, distinguished herself by her futile efforts to restore the Bourbon dynasty in the reign of Louis Philippe (1798-1890).

Berryer, Pierre Antoine, an eminent French barrister, born at Paris; a red-hot Legitimist, which brought him into trouble; was member of the National Assembly of 1848; inimical to the Second Empire, and openly protested against the coup d'état (1790-1868).

Ber`serker, a Norse warrior who went into battle unharnessed, whence his name (which means bare of sark or shirt of mail), and is said to have been inspired with such fury as to render him invulnerable and irresistible.

Bert, Paul, a French physiologist and statesman, born at Auxerre; was professor of Physiology at Paris; took to politics after the fall of the Empire; Minister of Public Instruction under Gambetta; sent governor to Tonquin; died of fever soon after; wrote a science primer for children entitled "La Première Année d'Enseignement Scientifique" (1833-1886).

Bertha, goddess in the S. German mythology, of the spinning-wheel principally, and of the household as dependent on it, in behalf of which and its economical management she is often harsh to idle spinners; at her festival thrift is the rule.

Bertha, St., a British princess, wife of Ethelbert, king of Kent; converted him to Christianity.

Berthe "au Grand Pied" (i. e. Long Foot), wife of Pepin the Short, and mother of Charlemagne, so called from her club foot.

Berthelier, a Swiss patriot, an uncompromising enemy of the Duke of Savoy in his ambition to lord it over Geneva.

Berthelot, Pierre Eugène, a French chemist, born at Paris; professor in the College of France; distinguished for his researches in organic chemistry, and his attempt to produce organic compounds; the dyeing trade owes much to his discoveries in the extraction of dyes from coal-tar; he laid the foundation of thermo-chemistry; b. 1827.

Berthier, Alexandre, prince of Wagram and marshal of France, born at Versailles; served with Lafayette in the American war, and rose to distinction in the Revolution; became head of Napoleon's staff, and his companion in all his expeditions; swore fealty to the Bourbons at the restoration of 1814; on Napoleon's return retired with his family to Bamberg; threw himself from a window, maddened at the sight of Russian troops marching past to the French frontier (1753-1815).

Berthollet, Count, a famous chemist, native of Savoy, to whom we owe the discovery of the bleaching properties of chlorine, the employment of carbon in purifying water, &c., and many improvements in the manufactures; became a senator and officer of the Legion of Honour under Napoleon; attached himself to the Bourbons on their return, and was created a peer (1744-1822).

Berthoud, a celebrated clockmaker, native of Switzerland; settled in Paris; invented the marine chronometer to determine the longitude at sea (1727-1807).

Bertin "l'Ainé," or the Elder, a French journalist, born at Paris; founder and editor of the Journal des Débats, which he started in 1799; friend of Châteaubriand (1766-1841).

Bertin, Pierre, introduced stenography into France, invented by Taylor in England (1751-1819).

Bertin, Rose, milliner to Marie Antoinette, famed for her devotion to her.

Bertinazzi, a celebrated actor, born at Turin, long a favourite in Paris (1710-1788).

Bertrand and Raton, two personages in La Fontaine's fable of the Monkey and the Cat, of whom R. cracks the nut and B. eats it.

Ber`trand, Henri Gratien, Comte, a French general, and faithful adherent of Napoleon, accompanied him in all his campaigns, to and from Elba, as well as in his exile at St. Helena; conducted his remains back to France in 1840 (1770-1844).

Bertrand de Molleville, Minister of Marine under Louis XVI.; a fiery partisan of royalty, surnamed the enfant terrible of the monarchy (1744-1818).

Berton, Pierre, French composer of operas (1726-1780). Henri, his son, composed operas; wrote a treatise on harmony (1761-1844).

Bérulle, Cardinal, born at Troyes; founder of the order of Carmelites, and of the Congregation of the Oratory (1576-1629).

Berwick, James Fitz-James, Duke of, a natural son of James II., a naturalised Frenchman; defended the rights of his father; was present with him at the battle of the Boyne; distinguished himself in Spain, where he gained the victory of Almanza; was made marshal of France; fell at the siege of Philippsburg; left "Memoirs" (1670-1734).

Berwick, North, a place on the S. shore of the Forth, in Haddingtonshire; a summer resort, specially for the golfing links.

Berwick-on-Tweed (13), a town on the Scotch side of the Tweed, at its mouth, reckoned since 1835 in Northumberland, though at one time treated as a separate county; of interest from its connection with the Border wars, during which it frequently changed hands, till in 1482 the English became masters of it.

Berwickshire (32), a fertile Scottish county between the Lammermoors, inclusive, and the Tweed; is divided into the Merse, a richly fertile plain in the S., the Lammermoors, hilly and pastoral, dividing the Merse from Mid and East Lothian, and Lauderdale, of hill and dale, along the banks of the Leader; Greenlaw the county town.

Berze`lius, Johan Jakob, Baron, a celebrated Swedish chemist, one of the creators of modern chemistry; instituted the chemical notation by symbols based on the notion of equivalents; determined the equivalents of a great number of simple bodies, such as cerium and silenium; discovered silenium, and shared with Davy the honour of propounding the electro-chemical theory; he ranks next to Linnæus as a man of science in Sweden (1779-1848).

Besançon (57), capital of the dep. of Doubs, in France; a very strong place; fortified by Vauban; abounds in relics of Roman and mediæval times; watchmaking a staple industry, employing some 15,000 of the inhabitants; manufactures also porcelain and carpets.

Besant, Mrs. Annie, née Wood, born in London; of Irish descent; married to an English clergyman, from whom she was legally separated; took a keen interest in social questions and secularism; drifted into theosophy, of which she is now an active propagandist; is an interesting woman, and has an interesting address as a lecturer; b. 1847.

Besant, Sir Walter, a man of letters, born at Portsmouth; eminent chiefly as a novelist of a healthily realistic type; wrote a number of novels jointly with James Rice, and is the author of "French Humourists," as well as short stories; champion of the cause of Authors versus Publishers, and is chairman of the committee; b. 1838.

Besenval, Baron, a Swiss, commandant of Paris under Louis XVI.; a royalist stunned into a state of helpless dismay at the first outbreak of the Revolution in Paris; could do nothing in the face of it but run for his life (1722-1791).

Besika Bay, a bay on the Asiatic coast, near the mouth of the Dardanelles.

Besme, a Bohemian in the pay of the Duke of Guise; assassinated Coligny, and was himself killed by Berteauville, a Protestant gentleman, in 1571.

Bess, Good Queen, a familiar name of Queen Elizabeth.

Bessara`bia (1,688), a government in the SW. of Russia, between the Dniester and the Pruth; a cattle-breeding province; exports cattle, wool, and tallow.

Bessar`ion, John, cardinal, native of Trebizond; contributed by his zeal in Greek literature to the fall of scholasticism and the revival of letters; tried hard to unite the Churches of the East and the West; joined the latter, and was made cardinal; too much of a Grecian to recommend himself to the popehood, to which he was twice over nearly elevated (1395-1472).

Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm, a Prussian astronomer of prominent ability, born at Minden; professor of Mathematics at Königsberg, and director of the Observatory; discovered—what was a great achievement—the parallax of the fixed star 61 Cygne; his greatest work, "Fundamenta Astronomiæ," on which he spent 10 years, a marvel, like all he did, of patient toil and painstaking accuracy (1784-1846).

Bessemer, Sir Henry, civil engineer and inventor, born at Charlton, Herts; of his many inventions the chief is the process, named after him, of converting pig-iron into steel at once by blowing a blast of air through the iron while in fusion till everything extraneous is expelled, and only a definite quantity of carbon is left in combination, a process which has revolutionised the iron and steel trade all over the world, leading, as has been calculated, to the production of thirty times as much steel as before and at one-fifth of the cost per ton (1813-1898).

Bessemer process. See Bessemer.

Bessières, Jean Baptiste, Duke of Istria, marshal of France, born at Languedoc, of humble parentage; rose from the ranks; a friend and one of the ablest officers of Napoleon, and much esteemed by him; distinguished himself in the Italian campaign, in Egypt, and at Marengo; was shot at Lützen the day before the battle (1768-1813).

Bessus, a satrap of Bactria under Darius, who assassinated his master after the battle of Arbela, but was delivered over by Alexander to Darius's brother, by whom he was put to death, 328 B.C.

Bestiary, a name given to a class of books treating of animals, viewed allegorically.

Bethany, village on E. of the Mount of Olives, abode of Lazarus and his sisters.

Bethel (i. e. house of God), a place 11 m. N. of Jerusalem, scene of Jacob's dream, and famous in the history of the patriarchs.

Bethencourt, a Norman baron, in 1425 discovered and conquered the Canaries, and held them as a fief of the crown of Castile.

Bethlehem (3), a village 6 m. S. of Jerusalem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ and King David, with a convent containing the Church of the Nativity; near it is the grotto where St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin.

Bethlen-Gabor, prince of Transylvania, assumed the title of king of Hungary; assisted Bohemia in the Thirty Years' war (1580-1629).

Bethnal Green (129), an eastern suburb of London, a parliamentary borough, a poor district, and scene of benevolent enterprises.

Betterton, Thomas, born at Westminster, a tragic actor, and as such an interpreter of Shakespeare on, it is believed, the traditional lines.

Bettina, the Countess of Arnim, a passionate admirer of Goethe.

Betty, W. Henry, a boy actor, known as the Infant Roscius; amassed a fortune; lived afterwards retired (1791-1874).

Beule, a French statesman and archæologist; superintended excavations on the Acropolis of Athens; held office under Macmahon (1826-1874).

Beust, Count von, a German statesman, born at Dresden; Minister for Foreign Affairs in Saxony; of strong conservative leanings, friendly to Austria; became Chancellor of the Austro-Hungarian empire; adopted a liberal policy; sympathised with France in the Franco-German war; resigned office in 1871; left "Memoirs" (1809-1886).

Beuthen (36), a manufacturing town in Prussian Silesia, in the centre of a mining district.

Beverley (12), a Yorkshire manufacturing town, 8 m. NW. of Hull, with a Gothic minster, which contains the tombs of the Percys.

Beverley, John, a learned man, tutor to the Venerable Bede, archbishop of York, and founder of a college for secular priests at Beverley; was one of the most learned men of his time; d. 721.

Bevis of Southampto, or Hampton, Sir, a famous knight of English mediæval romance, a man of gigantic stature, whose marvellous feats are recorded in Drayton's "Polyolbion."

Bewick, Thomas, a distinguished wood-engraver, born in Northumberland, apprenticed to the trade in Newcastle; showed his art first in woodcuts for his "History of Quadrupeds," the success of which led to the publication of his "History of British Birds," in which he established his reputation both as a naturalist, in the truest sense, and an artist (1753-1828).

Bewick, William, a great wood-engraver; did a cartoon from the Elgin Marbles for Goethe (1795-1866).

Beyle, Marie Henri, French critic and novelist, usually known by his pseudonym "De Stendal," born at Grenoble; wrote in criticism "De l'Amour," and in fiction "La Chartreuse de Parme" and "Le Rouge et le Noir"; an ambitious writer and a cynical (1788-1842).

Beypur, a port in the Madras presidency, a railway terminus, with coal and iron in the neighbourhood.

Beyrout (200), the most nourishing commercial city on the coast of Syria, and the port of Damascus, from which it is distant 55 m.; a very ancient place.

Beza, Theodore, a French Protestant theologian, born in Burgundy, of good birth; professor of Greek at Lausanne; deputed from Germany to intercede for the Huguenots in France, persuaded the king of Navarre to favour the Protestants; settled in Geneva, became the friend and successor of Calvin; wrote a book, "De Hereticis a Civili Magistratu Puniendis," in which he justified the burning of Servetus, and a "History of the Reformed Churches" in France; died at 86 (1519-1605).

Bezants, Byzantine gold coins of varying weight and value, introduced by the Crusaders into England, where they were current till the time of Edward III.

Béziers (42), a manufacturing town in the dep. of Hérault, 49 m. SW. of Montpellier; manufactures silk fabrics and confectionary.

Bhagalpur` (69), a town in Bengal, on the right bank of the Ganges, 265 m. NW. of Calcutta.

Bhagavad Gîtâ, (i. e. Song of Krishna), a poem introduced into the Mahâbhârata, divided into three sections, and each section into six chapters, called Upanishads; being a series of mystical lectures addressed by Krishna to his royal pupil Arjuna on the eve of a battle, from which he shrunk, as it was with his own kindred; the whole conceived from the point of view or belief, calculated to allay the scruples of Arjuna, which regards the extinction of existence as absorption in the Deity.

Bhamo` (6), a town in Burmah, the chief centre of trade with China, conducted mainly by Chinese, and a military station, only 40 m. from the Chinese frontier.

Bhartpur` (68), a town in Rajputana, in a native state of the name; yielding wheat, maize, cotton, sugar, with quarries of building stone; 30 m. W. of Agra; carries on an industry in the manufacture of chowries.

Bhartrihari, Indian author of apothegms, who appears to have lived in the 11th century B.C., and to have been of royal rank.

Bhils, a rude pro-Aryan race of Central India, still untrained to settled life; number 750,000.

Bhod-pa, name given to the aborigines of Thibet, and applied by the Hindus to all the Thibetan peoples.

Bhopal` (952), a well-governed native state in Central India, under British protection, with a capital city (70) of the same name; under a government that has been always friendly to Britain.

Bhutan (20), an independent state in the Eastern Himalayas, with magnificent scenery; subsidised by Britain; has a government like that of Thibet; religion the same, though the people are at a low stage of civilisation; the country exports horses, musk, and salt.