Blatant Beast, Spenser's name for the ignorant, slanderous, clamour of the mob.

Blavatsky, Mme., a theosophist, born in Russia; a great authority on theosophy, the doctrines of which she professed she derived from the fountain-head in Thibet (1813-1891).

Bleek, Friedrich, eminent German Biblical exegete and critic of the Schleiermacher school, born in Holstein; professor at Bonn; his chief work, "Commentary on the Hebrews," a great work; others are Introductions to the Old and to the New Testaments (1793-1859).

Bleek, Wm., son of preceding, a philologist; accompanied Colenso to Natal; author of "Comparative Grammar of the S. African Languages" (1827-1875).

Blefuscu, an island separated from Lilliput by a strait 800 yards wide, inhabited by pigmies; understood to represent France.

Blenheim, a village in Bavaria, near Augsburg; famous for Marlborough's victory in 1704, and giving name to it.

Blenheim Park, near Woodstock, Oxford, the gift, with the Woodstock estate, of the country to the Duke of Marlborough, for his military services in the Spanish Succession war.

Blessington, Countess of, an Irish lady celebrated for her beauty and wit; figured much in intellectual circles in London; had her salon at Kensington; was on intimate terms with Byron, and published "Conversations with Byron," and wrote several novels; being extravagant, fell into debt, and had to flee the country (1789-1849).

Blicher, Steen Steensen, Danish poet of rural life (1782-1848).

Bligh, Wm., a naval officer; served under Captain Cook; commanded the Bounty at Tahiti, when his crew mutinied under his harsh treatment, and set him adrift, with 18 others, in an open boat, in which, after incredible privations, he arrived in England; was afterwards governor of N.S. Wales, but dismissed for his rigorous and arbitrary conduct (1753-1817).

Blimber, Mrs. Cornelia, a prim school-matron in "Dombey & Son."

Blind, Karl, revolutionist and journalist, born at Mannheim; took part in the risings of 1848, and sentenced to prison in consequence of a pamphlet he wrote entitled "German Hunger and German Princes," but rescued by the mob; found refuge in England, where he interested himself in democratic movements, and cultivated his literary as well as his political proclivities by contributing to magazines, and otherwise; b. 1826.

Blind Harry, a wandering Scottish minstrel of the 15th century; composed in verse "The Life of that Noble Champion of Scotland, Sir William Wallace."

Blinkert Dune, a dune near Haarlem, 197 ft. above the sea-level.

Bloch, Marcus Elieser, a naturalist, born at Anspach, of Jewish descent; his "Ichthyology" is a magnificent national work, produced at the expense of the wealthiest princes of Germany (1723-1799).

Bloemært, a family of Flemish painters and engravers in 16th and 17th centuries.

Blois, capital of the deps. of Loire and Cher, France, on the Loire, 35 m. S. of Orleans; a favourite residence of Francis I. and Charles IX., and the scene of events of interest in the history of France.

Blomefleld, Francis, a clergyman, born at Norfolk; author of "Topographical History of the County of Norfolk" (1705-1751).

Blomfield, bishop of London, born at Bury St. Edmunds; Greek scholar; active in the Church extension of his diocese (1785-1857).

Blondel, a troubadour of the 12th century; a favourite of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, it is said, discovered the place of Richard's imprisonment in Austria by singing the first part of a love-song which Richard and he had composed together, and by the voice of Richard in responding to the strain.

Blondin, Charles, an acrobat and rope-dancer, born at St. Omer, France; celebrated for his feats in crossing Niagara Falls on the tight-rope; b. 1824.

Blood, Thomas, Colonel, an Irish desperado, noted for his daring attempts against the life of the Duke of Ormonde, and for carrying off the regalia in the Tower; unaccountably pardoned by Charles II., and received afterwards into royal favour with a pension of £500 per annum. He was afterwards charged with conspiracy, and committed to the King's Bench, and released.

Bloody Assizes, the judicial massacres and cruel injustices perpetrated by Judge Jeffreys during Circuit in 1685.

Bloody Bones, a hobgoblin feared by children.

Bloody Statute, statute of Henry VIII. making it a crime involving the heaviest penalties to question any of the fundamental doctrines of the Romish Church.

Bloomfleld, Robert, an English poet, born in Suffolk, by trade a shoemaker; author of the "Farmer's Boy," a highly popular production, translated into French and Italian; spent his last days in ill-health struggling with poverty, which brought on dejection of mind (1766-1823).

Blount, Charles, a deist, born in London; assailant of revealed religion; was involved in all the controversies of the time; died by his own hand (1654-1693).

Blowpipe, a contrivance by which a current of air is driven through a flame, and the flame directed upon some fusible substance to fuse or vitrify it.

Blücher, Prussian field-marshal, familiarly named "Marshal Forwards," born at Rostock; served first in the Swedish army, then in the Prussian; distinguished as a leader of cavalry, and met with varying fortune; at the age of 70 commanded the centre of the Allied Army in 1813; distinguished himself at Lützen and Leipzig; pursued the French across the Rhine; pressed forward to Paris at the time of Napoleon's abdication; defeated by Napoleon at Ligny, 16th June 1815; arrived on the field of Waterloo just as the French were preparing to make their last charge, and contributed to decide the fate of the day (1742-1819).

Blue Mountains, a range of thickly wooded mountains traversing Jamaica from E. to W., from 5000 to 7000 ft. in height; also a chain of mountains in New South Wales of two parallel ranges, with a deep chasm between, and full of gloomy ravines and beetling precipices, the highest 4100 ft.

Blue Nose, a nickname given to an inhabitant of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.

Bluebeard, a wealthy seigneur, the owner of a castle; marries a beautiful woman, and leaves her in charge of the keys of the apartments in his absence, with injunctions not to unlock any of the doors, an injunction which she fails to respect, and finds to her horror the remains of his former wives locked up in one of them; her disobedience is discovered, and she is to prepare for death, but is rescued, as she lies with her head on the block, by the timely arrival of her brothers, who at once despatch the husband to his merited doom.

Blue-books, Parliamentary documents bound in blue paper, as the corresponding documents in France are in yellow; they have been published regularly since the beginning of the 18th century, those of a single session now forming a collection of some 60 folio volumes.

Blue-coat School, a name given to Christ's Hospital, London, founded in the reign of Edward VI., from the blue coats worn by the boys.

Blue-gown, in Scotland a beggar, a bedesman of the king, who wore a blue gown, the gift of the king, and had his license to beg.

Blue-stocking, a female pedant or femme savante, a name derived from a learned coterie, formed in the 15th century, at Venice, who wore blue stockings as a badge.

Bluff Hal, or Harry, Henry VIII. of England.

Blum, a German politician, born at Cologne; tried by court-martial and shot for abetting a political movement in Vienna in 1848, a proceeding which created a wide-spread sensation at the time all over Europe; b. 1807.

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich, a distinguished German naturalist and ethnologist, born at Gotha; studied at Jena; became professor at Göttingen, an office he filled for 60 years; his works gave a great impulse to scientific research in all directions; the chief were "Institutiones Physiologicæ," "Manual of Natural History," "Manual of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology"; he made craniology a special study; was a great advocate for religious liberty (1752-1840).

Blumenthal, Leonard von, field-marshal in the Prussian army; distinguished in the wars with Denmark, Austria, and France; an eminent strategist; b. 1810.

Blumi`ne, the siren that Calypsowise in "Sartor" seduced Teufelsdröckh at the commencement of his career, but who opened his eyes to see that it is not in sentiment, however fine, that the soul's cravings can find satisfaction.

Blunt, John Henry, D.D., born at Chelsea; wrote largely on theological and ecclesiastical subjects (1823-1884).

Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar, a distinguished jurist, born at Zurich; an authority in international law; a liberal conservative both in Church and State; founder and president of the Protestant Union called the Protestantenverein (1808-1881).

Boabdil, or Abu-Abdallah, surnamed "The Unfortunate," the last Moorish king of Granada, from 1481 to 1492; expelled from his throne by Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon; as he rode off he halted on a hill called "The Last Sigh of the Moor," and wept as he looked back on the Alhambra, while his mother added to his bitterness with the cutting sarcasm, "Weep as a woman for a throne you have not been able to defend as a man"; died shortly after in Africa, recklessly throwing away his life on a field of battle.

Boadice`a, a British heroine, queen of the Iceni, who occupied Norfolk and Suffolk; roused by indignity done to her and her people by the Romans, gathered round her an army, who, with a murderous onslaught, attacked their settlements and destroyed them; but being attacked and defeated in turn by Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor, she put, in her despair, an end to her life by poison, A.D. 61. Cowper made her the theme of one of his poems.

Boanerges (i. e. Sons of Thunder), applied by Christ to the sons of Zebedee for the vehemence of their zeal.

Boaz and Jachin, two pillars of brass at the entrance of Solomon's Temple, signifying respectively strength and stability.

Bob`adil, Captain, a braggadocio in Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour."

Bobèche, a French theatrical clown, under the Empire and the Restoration, son of an upholsterer of the St. Antoine faubourg, the type of the merry-andrew at country fairs.

Boccaccio, Giovanni, the celebrated Italian raconteur, born near Florence; showed early a passion for literature; sent by his father to Naples to pursue a mercantile career; gave himself up to story-telling in prose and verse; fell in love with Maria, a beautiful woman, daughter of the king, styled by him Fiammetta, for whom he wrote several of his works, and his great work, the "Decameron"; early formed a lifelong friendship with Petrarch, along with whom he contributed to the revival and study of classic literature; lectured on Dante in Florence; Petrarch's death deeply affected him, and he died the year after (1313-1375).

Boccherini, Luigi, a celebrated Italian musical composer, born at Lucca; was associated with Manfredi, the violinist; his works were numerous; appears to have lived in poverty and obscurity (1740-1805).

Bochart, Samuel, a Protestant divine, born at Rouen; pastor at Caen; a geographer and an Orientalist; wrote a treatise on sacred geography; celebrated for a nine-days' discussion with the Jesuit Verin (1599-1667).

Bode, Johann Elert, an astronomer, born at Hamburg; was professor of Astronomy and director of Observatory at Berlin; produced a number of astronomical works, one of his best, "An Introduction to the Knowledge of the Starry Heavens;" gave name to the law of the planetary distances, called Bode's Law, although it was observed by Kepler long before his day (1747-1826).

Bodel, a celebrated troubadour of the 13th century, born at Arras.

Bodensee, another name for the Lake of Constance, well called the filter of the Rhine.

Bodin, Jean, a publicist and diplomatist, born at Angers; author of "The Republic," in six books, published at first in French and then in Latin, which summed up all the political philosophy of his time, and contributed to prepare the way for subsequent speculations; was the precursor of Hobbes and Montesquieu (1530-1596).

Bodleian Library, the university library of Oxford, founded, or rather restored, by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1593; enlarged from time to time by bequests, often munificent. It possesses 400,000 printed volumes and 30,000 MSS.

Bodley, Sir Thomas, born at Exeter; employed on embassies by Elizabeth on the Continent, where he collected a number of valuable books; bequeathed them and his fortune to the university library of Oxford, named after him (1545-1613).

Bodmer, Johann Jacob, a distinguished Swiss critic, born near Zurich; the first, by study of the masters in literature of Greece and Rome, France, England, and Italy, to wake up Germany to a sense of its poverty in that line, and who aided, along with others, in the inauguration of a new era, which he did more by his republication of the Minnesingers and part of the "Nibelungen Lied" than by his advocacy (1698-1783).

Bodmin (5), the county town of Cornwall, supersedes Truro as capital; an important agricultural centre; has large annual fairs for cattle, horses, and sheep.

Bodoni, an Italian printer; settled at Parma, where his press was set up in the ducal palace, whence issued magnificent editions of the classics, Horace, Virgil, Tacitus, Tasso, and, last of all, Homer. He was often tempted to Rome, but he refused to quit Parma and the patronage of the ducal house there (1740-1813).

Bödtcher, Ludwig, a Danish lyric poet, born at Copenhagen; lived chiefly in Italy (1793-1874).

Boece, Hector, a humanist and Scottish historian, born at Dundee; professor of Philosophy at Paris; friend of Erasmus; was principal of university at Aberdeen; wrote "History of Bishops of Mortlach and Aberdeen," and "History of Scotland" in excellent Latin (1465-1536).

Boeckh, Philip August, classical antiquary, born at Carlsruhe; professor of Ancient Literature in Berlin; a classic of the first rank, and a contributor on a large scale to all departments of Greek classical learning; was an eminently learned man, and an authority in different departments of learning (1785-1867).

Boehm, Sir Joseph Edgar, sculptor, born in Vienna, of Hungarian parentage; settled in England; executed a colossal statue of the Queen at Windsor, a seated statue of Carlyle on the Thames Embankment, a statue of Bunyan at Bedford, &c.; patronised by the Queen and royal family; buried in St. Paul's by the Queen's desire (1785-1869).

Boehme, Jacob, a celebrated German mystic, born at Görlitz; of an imaginatively meditative turn from boyhood as a neat-herd, and afterwards in his stall as a shoemaker; spent his whole life in meditation on divine things; saw in the Bible a revelation of these as in no other book; seemed to have eyes given him to see visions of these things himself, for which he felt he had no organ to express, and which he conveyed to others in mystical, apocalyptical speech; a thinker very fascinating to all minds of the seer class. He was subject to persecution, as all of his stamp are, by the men of the letter, and bore up with the meekness which all men of his elevation of character ever do—"quiet, gentle, and modest," as they all are to the very core, in his way of thinking; and his philosophy would seem to have anticipated the secret of Hegel, who acknowledges him as one of the fathers of German philosophy. He left writings which embody a scheme of mystical theology, setting forth the trinity in unity of the Hegelian system, that is, viewing the divine as it is in itself, as it comes out in nature, and as it returns to itself in the human soul (1575-1624).

Boehmer, a German historian, born at Frankfort; author of works on the Carlovingian period of history (1795-1863).

Boeo`tia, a country of ancient Greece, N. of the Gulf of Corinth; the natives, though brave, were mere tillers of the soil under a heavy atmosphere, innocent of culture, and regarded as boors and dullards by the educated classes of Greece, and particularly of Athens, and yet Hesiod, Pindar, and Plutarch were natives of Boeotia.

Boerhaave, a great physician, born near Leyden, and son of a pastor; ultimately professor of Medicine and Botany there, as well as of Chemistry; chairs of which he filled and adorned with the greatest distinction; his reputation spread over Europe, and even as far as China—a letter from which bore the simple address, "To M. Boerhaave, Europe," and found him; his system was adopted by the profession, and patients from far and wide came to consult him—among others, Pope Benedict VIII. and Peter the Great; his character was as noble as his abilities were great; his principal works were "Institutiones Medicæ," "Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis," "Libellus de Materia Medica," and "Institutiones Chemicæ" (1668-1738).

Boers (i. e. peasants engaged in tillage), Dutch colonists of an independent republican temper, who in the 17th century squatted in S. Africa; gave themselves to agriculture and cattle-rearing; settled at length in the Transvaal in a self-governed community by themselves.

Boëthius, Anicius Manlius Severinus, a Roman statesman, born at Rome, of Consular rank, a profoundly learned man, held the highest offices, Consul among others, under Theodoric the Goth; his integrity and opposition to injustice procured him enemies, who accused him of treason; he was cast into prison, and finally put to death; wrote in prison his "De Consolatione Philosophiæ," in five parts, employing verse and prose alternately, which King Alfred translated into Anglo-Saxon; he was canonised as a martyr, and his influence was great during the Middle Ages (470-524).

Boeuf, Front de, a character in "Ivanhoe."

Bogatzky, Karl Heinrich von, religious writer; wrote hymns and an autobiography; is best known as the author of the "Golden Treasury" (1690-1744).

Bogdanovitch, a Russian poet, called by his countrymen the "Russian Anacreon"; his best-known poem "Psyche" (1743-1803).

Bogermann, Johann, Dutch divine, translated the Bible into Dutch, and was President of the Synod of Dort (1576-1633).

Bogota` (100), capital of the United State of Colombia, situated on a remarkable, almost mountain-encircled, plateau, on the river Bogotá, 65 m. SE. of its port, Honda, the highest navigable point of the Magdalena, is 8600 ft. above sea-level, and has a spring-like climate. It is regularly built, with innumerable churches, a mint, university, library, and observatory, and several schools. Though the country is fertile and the mountains rich in coal, iron, salt, and precious metals, its situation and the want of a railway hinder trade.

Bog-trotter, a name given to the Scottish moss-troopers, now to certain Irish for their agility in escaping over bogs.

Bogue, David, born in Berwickshire, a Congregational minister; one of the founders of the London Foreign Missionary, the Foreign Bible, and the Religious Tract Societies (1750-1825).

Bohemia (5,843), the most northerly province in Austria, two-thirds the size of Scotland; is encircled by mountains, and drained by the upper Elbe and its tributaries. The Erzgebirge separate it from Saxony; the Riesengebirge, from Prussia; the Böhmerwald, from Bavaria; and the Moravian Mountains, from Moravia. The mineral wealth is varied and great, including coal, the most useful metals, silver, sulphur, and porcelain clay. The climate is mild in the valleys, the soil fertile; flax and hops the chief products; forests are extensive. Dyeing, calico-printing, linen and woollen manufactures, are the chief industries. The glassware is widely celebrated; there are iron-works and sugar-refineries. The transit trade is very valuable. The people are mostly Czechs, of the Slavonic race, Roman Catholics in religion; there is a large and influential German minority of about two millions, with whom the Czechs, who are twice as numerous, do not amalgamate; the former being riled at the official use of the Czech language, and the latter agitating for the elevation of the province to the same status as that of Hungary. Education is better than elsewhere in Austria; there is a university at Prague, the capital. In the 16th century the crown was united with the Austrian, but in 1608 religious questions led to the election of the Protestant Frederick V. This was followed by the Thirty Years' War, the extermination of the Protestants, and the restoration of the Austrian House.

Bohemian, name given to one who lives by his wits and shuns conventionality.

Bohemian Brethren, a fraternity of an extreme sect of the Hussites, organised as United Brethren in 1455; broken up in the Thirty Years' War, met in secret, and were invited, under the name of Moravians or Herrnhuters, by Count Zinzendorf to settle on his estate.

Bohemond, first prince of Antioch, son of Robert Guiscard; set out on the first crusade; besieged and took Antioch; was besieged in turn by the Saracens, and imprisoned for two years; liberated, he collected troops and recaptured the city (1056-1111).

Bohlen, von, a German Orientalist, professor at Königsberg (1796-1840).

Bonn, Henry George, an enterprising publisher, a German, born in London; issued a series of works identified with his name (1796-1884).

Böhtlingk, Otto, Sanskrit scholar, a German, born in St. Petersburg; author, among other works, of a Sanskrit dictionary in 7 vols.; b.1815.

Boiardo, Matteo Maria, Count of Scandiano, surnamed the "Flower of Chivalry"; an Italian poet, courtier, diplomatist, and statesman; author of "Orlando Innamorato" (1456), the model of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," which eclipsed it (1434-1494).

Boieldieu, Adrien François, a distinguished French musical composer of operas; author of the "Calife de Bagdad," "Télémaque," and "La Dame Blanche," reckoned his masterpiece; called the French Mozart (1775-1834).

Boigne, Count de, a French soldier of fortune, born at Chambéry; served under France, Russia, East India Company, and the prince of the Mahrattas, to whom he rendered signal service; amassed wealth, which he dealt out generously and for the benefit of his country (1751-1830).

Boii, an ancient people of Gaul, occupying territory between the Allier and the Loire.

Boileau, Nicolas (surnamed Despréaux, to distinguish him from his brother), poet and critic, born in Paris; brought up to the law, but devoted to letters, associating himself with La Fontaine, Racine, and Molière; author of "Satires" and "Epistles," "L'Art Poétique," "Le Lutrin," &c., in which he attached and employed his wit against the bad taste of his time; did much to reform French poetry, as Pascal did to reform the prose, and was for long the law-giver of Parnassus; was an imitator of Pope, but especially of Horace (1636-1711).

Boisard, a French fabulist of remarkable fecundity (1743-1831).

Bois-Guillebert, a French economist, cousin of Vauban; advocate of free trade; d. 1714.

Bois-le-Duc (27), capital of North Brabant, 45 m. SE. of Amsterdam, and with a fine cathedral; seat of an archbishop.

Boismont, The Abbé, one of the best French pulpit orators of the 18th century (1715-1786).

Boisrobert, The Abbé, a French poet, one of the first members of the French Academy; patronised by Richelieu (1592-1662).

Boissonade, Jean François, a French Greek scholar; for a time carried away by the revolutionary movement, but abandoned politics for letters (1774-1857).

Boissiere, a French lexicographer (1806-1885).

Boissy d'Anglas, Count, a member and president of the Convention in Paris, noted for his firmness and coolness during the frenzy of the Revolution: one day the Parisian mob burst in upon the Convention, shot dead a young deputy, Féraud, "sweeping the members of it before them to the upper-bench ... covered, the president sat unyielding, like a rock in the beating of seas; they menaced him, levelled muskets at him, he yielded not; they held up Féraud's bloody head to him; with grave, stern air he bowed to it, and yielded not"; became a senator and commander of the Legion of Honour under Napoleon; was made a peer by Louis XVIII. (1756-1826).

Boiste, a French lexicographer (1765-1824).

Bokha`ra (1,800), a Mohammedan State in Central Asia, N. of Afghanistan, nominally independent; but the Khan is a vassal of the Czar. The surface is arid, and cultivation possible only near the rivers-the Oxus, Zarafshan, and Karshi. In the sands of the Oxus, gold and salt are found. Rice, cotton, and cereals are grown; silk, cotton-thread, jewellery, cutlery, and firearms are manufactured. The people are of Turk and Persian origin. The capital, Bokhara (70), is on the plain of the Zarafshan, a walled, mud-built city, 8 or 9 m. in circumference, with numerous colleges and mosques, the centre of learning and religious life in Central Asia. It has important trade and large slave markets.

Bolan` Pass, a high-lying, deep, narrow gorge, extending between Quetta (Beluchistan) and Kandahar (Afghanistan), sloping upwards at an inclination of 90 ft. a mile; is traversed by a torrent.

Boleslaus, the name of several dukes of Poland, of whom the most famous is Boleslaus I. the Great, who ruled from 992 to 1025.

Boleyn, Anne, or Bullen, second wife of Henry VIII. and mother of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thoman Bullen (afterwards Earl of Wiltshire); after a three years' residence at the French Court became maid of honour to Queen Katherine; attracted the admiration of Henry; was married to him, and became queen; charged with adultery and conspiracy, was found guilty and beheaded; was of the Reformed faith; her marriage with Henry had important bearings on the English Reformation (1507-1536).

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount, English statesman, orator, and political writer, born at Battersea; Prime Minister of Queen Anne in the Tory interest, after her dismissal of the Whigs; on the accession of George I. fled to France and joined the Pretender; was impeached and attainted; returned in 1723 to his estates, but denied a seat in the House of Lords, an indignity which he resented by working the overthrow of Walpole; was the friend of Pope and Swift, and the author of "Letters" bearing upon politics and literature. "Bolingbroke," says Prof. Saintsbury, "is a rhetorician pure and simple, but the subjects of his rhetoric were not the great and perennial subjects, but puny ephemeral forms of them—the partisan and personal politics of his day, the singularly shallow form of infidelity called Deism and the like; and his time deprived him of many, if not most, of the rhetorician's most telling weapons. The 'Letter to Windham,' a sort of apologia, and the 'Ideal of a Patriot King,' exhibit him at his best." It was he who suggested to Pope his "Essay on Man" (1678-1751).

Bolivar, Simon, surnamed the Liberator, general and statesman, born at Caracas; a man of good birth and liberal education; seized with the passion for freedom during a visit to Madrid and Paris, devoted himself to the cause of S. American independence; freed from the yoke of Spain Venezuela and New Grenada, which, in 1819, he erected into a republic under the name of Colombia; achieved in 1824 the same for Upper Peru, henceforth called Bolivia, after his name; accused of aspiring to the Dictatorship, he abdicated, and was preparing to leave the country when he died of fever, with the sage reflection on his lips, "The presence of a soldier, however disinterested he may be, is always dangerous in a State that is new to freedom"; he has been called the Washington of S. America (1783-1830).

Bolivia (1,500), an inland republic of S. America, occupying lofty tablelands E. of the Andes, and surrounded by Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chili. The S. is chiefly desert; in the N. are Lake Titicaca and many well-watered valleys. The very varied heights afford all kinds of vegetation, from wheat and maize to tropical fruits. In the lower plains coffee, tobacco, cotton, and cinchona are cultivated. The most important industry is mining: gold, silver, copper, and tin. Trade is hampered by want of navigable rivers, but helped by railways from Chili, Peru, and Argentina. Silver is the chief export; manufactured goods are imported. The country has been independent since 1825; it lost its sea provinces in the war with Chili, 1879-83. The capital is Sucre (12), but La Pay (45) and Cochabamba (14) are larger towns.

Bolland, John, a Jesuit of Antwerp, born in Belgium; compiled five vols. of the Lives of the Saints called "Acta Sanctorum," which was continued by others, called after him "Bollandists."

Bollandists, a succession of Jesuits who produced the Lives of the Saints, now extended to sixty vols.

Bologna (147), an ancient walled city of Italy, on a fertile plain, at the foot of the Lower Apennines, 83 m. N. of Florence; has many fine buildings, a university, one of the oldest in Europe, schools of music and art, libraries, and art collections. There are some silk and other industries, and considerable trade.

Bologna, John Of, one of the most celebrated sculptors of art in his time, born at Douai, settled at Florence (1524-1608).

Bolor-Tagh, a high tableland in Central Asia, stretching from the Hindu Kush mountains northwards to the Tian Shan.

Bolse`na, a small town in Italy, on the E. shore of Lake Bolsena.

Bolsena, a lake with clear water in a hollow crater of a volcano, and abounding with fish, but with an unwholesome atmosphere.

Bolton (115), manufacturing town of Lancashire.

Bolton Abbey, an old abbey in Yorkshire, 6 m. E. of Skipton; was founded by the Augustinian canons.

Boma, a station on the Lower Congo, in the Congo Independent State; once a great slave mart.

Bomarsund, a fortress of the island of Aland occupied by Russia, destroyed by the Anglo-French fleet in 1854; the Russians bound not to restore it.

Bomba, nickname of Ferdinand II., late king of the Two Sicilies, given him, it is alleged, from his calling upon his soldiers to bombard his people during an insurrection.

Bombastes Furioso, an opera by Thomas Rhodes in ridicule of the bombastic style of certain tragedies in vogue.

Bombay (26,960), the western Presidency of India, embraces 26 British districts and 19 feudatory states. N. of the Nerbudda River the country is flat and fertile; S. of it are mountain ranges and tablelands. In the fertile N. cotton, opium, and wheat are the staple products. In the S., salt, iron, and gold are mined; but coal is wanting. The climate is hot and moist on the coast and in the plains, but pleasant on the plateaux. Cotton manufacture has developed extensively and cotton cloths, with sugar, tea, wool, and drugs are exported. Machinery, oil, coal, and liquors are imported. Bombay (822), the chief city, stands on an island, connected with the coast by a causeway, and has a magnificent harbour and noble docks. It is rapidly surpassing Calcutta in trade, and is one of the greatest of seaports; its position promises to make it the most important commercial centre in the East, as it already is in the cotton trade of the world. It swarms with people of every clime, and its merchandise is mainly in the hands of the Parsees, the descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers. It is the most English town in India. It came to England from Portugal as dowry with Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II., who leased it to the East India Company for £10 a year. Its prosperity began when the Civil War in America afforded it an opening for its cotton.

Bon Gaultier, nom de plume assumed by Professor Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin.

Bona (30), a seaport in Algeria, in the province of Constantine, on a bay of the Mediterranean, with an excellent harbour and a growing trade; is much improved since its occupation by the French in 1832. Near it are the ruins of Hippo, the episcopal city of Augustine.

Bona, an ascetic writer, surnamed the Fénélon of Italy, one of feuillant order of monks (1609-1674).