a 



BEDX 



1-l'HA. 



HI 



he had began to ar-plr that science then, to to .peak, new in the re- 

 i_: , _: 1 ._. in tj,, treatment, by the humid 



my, of tit* ores of silver, bad. and copper. Among the substances 

 which b. obtained by (low electric action an alumiaum, tiliciuui, 

 glucium, and many others, including phosphate*, carbonates, sulphu 

 lots, iodurrt*. Ac. And to him in owe that method of electric colora- 

 tion on gold, silver, and copper, which has tine* been adopted in 

 too art*. 



BeaqacreT* object in eleotro-ohemistry hu bean to establish the 

 relation* existing between electrical affinitie* aod forom, ud to provoke 

 the action of the Bnt in rirtue of the second. Gilding and (.luting, 

 by the humid way, at well at electrotype, aro only different applica- 

 tions of betrocbambtry. Among the other worlu of thU din- 

 tingniahed savant, wo may mention hit research** on the electric 

 eoodootibility of metala, on galvanometers, on the electric properties 

 of tourmaline, on atmospheric electricity, on effects produced during 

 vegetating, on an electro-magnetic balance for measuring with exact- 

 bode Ike intensity of Itctric currenU, and on the UM of sea-salt in 

 agriculture. That three are but a few of the whole may be judged 

 of from the fact that Becquerel has contributed more than a hundred 

 paper* to the 'Memoires de 1' Academic dea Science*,' at Paris, 



Such labour* were not likely to pan unrecognised. Becquerel was 

 elrcted a member of the Acaddmie in 1S29, and a foreign member of 

 Uie Hoyal Society of London iu 1837. In the name year the society 

 gave him their Copley medal, for hi* "various memoirs on the subject 

 of Electricity." He was choaen into the Couucil-Qenvral of the Loiret 

 in 1847, in which he has brought his scientific knowledge to bear on 

 the questions discussed, particularly that ou the improvement of 

 Soiogne ; and his reports to the Academic have influenced and guided 

 the government in their works of amelioration. 



Becquerel is also one of the profeesor* administrators of the Museum 

 of Natural History. Beside* the papers above mentioned, numerous 

 others are printed in the ' Annale* de Physique et de Chimie.' HU 

 Traiu! de lEl.-ctriciUS etdu Wogui : tisuie,' iu 7 vols., appeared 1831-40; 

 and he ha* published a 'Traiu 1 d'Klectro Chimie ; ' Traitc' de 1'hy- 

 aiqne considcree dan* sea rapports avec la Chimie et les Sciences 

 NatoreUr*,' 2 vols. ; ' Des Climata, et de 1'Influeuce des Sols boiscs et 

 deooisd* ; ' 'Traitd de Physique terrestre et de Me'tc'orologie,' &c. 



In this hut-mentioned work, Becquerel ha* been assisted by tlie 

 younger of hi* two son?, Alexander Edmond, who, born in 1820, has 

 greatly dittiu.-ui-hed himself in physical science, and is now professor 

 of physic* at the Conservatoire de* Art* et Metiers. 



HK1)A, or BEDE, an Engliah monk, one of the brightest ornaments 

 of the 8th century, and one of the mo*t eminent fathers of the English 

 church, whose talent* and virtues procured him the name of the 

 4 Venerable Bed*.' There ha* been considerable difference of opinion 

 among writer* both * to the year and the place of Bcde's birth. The 

 Tear is variously given from 672 to 677 ; but the most probable date 

 I* 673, or, a* Stevenson labours to prove, 674. His birthplace was 

 soon where upon the estate* which afterward* belonged to the two 

 abbey* of St. Peter and St Paul in the bishopric of Durham, at Wear- 

 mouth aod Jarrow, near the mouth of the river Tyne. Monk ton by 

 Jarrow, near the mouth of the Tyne, is the locality usually adopted ; 

 but Lingard and some other* consider that SnnderUnd, at the mouth 

 of the Wear, has the better claim. At seven year* of age lie was taken 

 to the monastery of St. Peter at Wearmouth, and committed to the 

 eaie of Abbot Benedict Bisoop, under whom and hi* successor Ceolfrid 

 be was carefully educated for twelve years, a favour which he after- 

 wards repaid by writing their lives. In his nineteenth year he took 

 deacon'* orders, and in hi* thirtieth year, at the instance of Ceolfrid 

 hi* abbot, was ordained priest, both time* by John of Beverley, then 

 bishop of Ilagustsld, or Hexbam, who had been one of hi* early pre- 

 ceptors. The fsme of Brde now reached even to Rome, and Pope 

 Sergio*, according to a Utter inserted by William of Molmesbury in 

 hi* Koclioh History,' mad* an earnest application to Abbot Ceolfrid 



that Bed* might be sent to onbt him in the promulgation of certain 

 point* of ieolabtleJ discipline. Mr. Stevenson doubts the accuracy 

 of thb statement, and on the authority of an ancient copy of this 

 ~ Iaaaa 9 * C** " manuscript*, in which the name of Brde does 



' ' ' ' 



_ i MaJnvsbnry with having interpolated Bede's name. 

 B* that a* it may, Bede did not eitbi r then or at any lubeequent period 

 go to ROOM, but spent the whole of his tranquil life in his monastery, 

 improving himself in all the learning of hi* age, but directing his 

 more partieabr atteaUoo to the compilation of an Ecclesiastical 

 lli.tory of the English Nation,' the materials for which he obtained 

 pertly from chronicles, partly from annals preserved in contemporary 

 ooovvnU, and partly from the Information of prelate* with whom be 

 was see/tainted. Making allowance for the introduction of legendary 

 ">aUer, which was the Unit of the age, few work* have supported their 

 credit so loaf, or ben so generally consulted as authentic sources. 

 Bede poblisbed thb history about the year 734, when, as he informs 

 *. be was in hi* fifty-ninth year, but before this he bad written 

 many other book* on various subject*, a catalogue- of which de ub- 

 joined to bis history. By these be obtained such reputation as to 

 be eoasalled by the most eminent charehmen of hi* age, and par- 

 ticularly by Esjbett. archbishop of York, who washimself aVry leaded 

 man. To him Bsde wrute an epistle which illustrates the state of 

 theehnnh at that time. It was on* of UM last, and indeed probably 



the very last, of Bodes writings. In this letter he expresses himself 

 with much freedom, both in the advice he gave to Egbert, and with 

 respect to the inconveniences which be foresaw would arise from the 

 multiplication of religious houses, to the prejudice both of church 

 and state. 



It ap|ars from this epistle that Bede wa* much indisposed when 

 he wrote it, and probably began to fall into that declining state of 

 health from which he never recovered. William of Malmeabury, in his 

 history (' De QestU Kegum,' lib. iii., c. iii. ), and Syuicon of Durham, in 

 his account of the Church of Durham (lili. i., c. xv.), chiefly from the 

 relation of one Cuthbcrt, a fellow monk, have preserved full accounts 

 of the manner in which Bede died : whence we leant that the hut stage 

 of his distcuij>er was an asthma, which he supported with great firm- 

 uess of mind, although iu much weakness and pain, for seven weeks, 

 during which time he did not in the least abate his usual employment* 

 in the monastery, but continued to pray, to instruct the younger monks, 

 and to prosecute the literary undertakings which were still in his bonds. 

 In the night* of hU sickness, in which from the nature of his disease 

 ho hod little sleep, he sung hymns and praises to Uod; iiud though he 

 expressed the utmost confidence, and waa able, on a review of his own 

 conduct, to declare seriously that he had so lived as not to be afraid 

 to die, yet he did not deny his apprehensions of death, and that dread 

 which is natuial to man ut the approach of his dissolution. He was 

 continually active to the last, and p irticul:irly anxious about two works ; 

 one his translation of St. John's Gospel into the Saxon language, the 

 other some passages which he was extracting from the works of St. 

 Uidore. From the monks' relation it appears that the day before his 

 death he grew much worse, and his feet began to swell, yet he passed 

 the night as usual, and continued dictating to the person who acted 

 as his amanuensis, who, observing his weakness, said, " There remains 

 now only one chapter, but it seems difficult to you to speak." To 

 which he answered, " It is eaty ; take your pen, mend it, and write 

 quickly."* About nine o'clock he sout for some of his brethren, priests 

 of the monastery, to divide amongst them some incense nnd other 

 things of little value, which he had preserved iu a chest. While be 

 was speaking the young man, Wilberch, who wrote for him, said, 

 " Master, there is but one sentence wanting;" upon which he bid him 

 write quick, and soon after the scribe said, " Now it is finished." To 

 which he replied, "Thou hast said the truth consummatm.. 

 T.iki- up my head ; I wish to sit opposite to the place where 1 have 

 been accustomed to pray, and where now sitting I may yet invoke my 

 Father." Being thus seated, according to his desire, upon the floor of 

 his cell, he said, " Qlory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 

 1 1 nly Oho.- 1;" and as he pronounced the last word he expired. II, 

 died, according to the best opinion, May 2oth, 735, though the exact 

 date has been contested. His body was interred in the church of his 

 own monastery at Jarrow, but about the middle of the llth century 

 it wag removed to Durham, and placed in the some coffin or clu-.-t wit'. 

 that of St. Cuthbert, as appears by a very ancient Saxon poem ou the 

 relics preserved in the cathedral of Durham, printed at the cn<l >r 

 Symeon of Durham's history. (Twysden's ' Decem Scriptures,' o . 

 Early in the 12th century the bones of Bede were placed by Bishop 

 Pudscy in a casket of gold and silver in the Galilee of the cathedral, 

 where they remained till removed with other relics by the reformer*. 



Malmesuury gays : " With this man was buried almost all know- 

 Ledge of history down to our times ; inasmuch a* there has been no 

 Englishman either emulous of his pursuit*, or a follower of his K 

 who could continue the thread of his discourses now broken short." 



The first catalogue of Bedc's works, as we have before observed, wo 

 bave from himielf, at the end of his 'Ecclesiastical History,' which 

 contains all he had written before the year 731. This we tiud < 

 by Lrlond, who also mentions some other pieces he had met with of 

 Bede's, and points out likewise several that passed under Bede's name, 

 though, in Leland'a judgment, spurious, {belaud, ' De Script. Brit.,' 

 i-d. Hall, Oxford, 1709, torn. i. p. 115.) Bale, in the first edition of his 

 work on British writers (4to, Gippesw. 1548, fol. 50), mentions ninety - 

 six treatise* written by Bede, and in bis last edition (!'<>!. 1. ">.'>'.>, p. 94) 

 swells these to one hundred and forty-five tracts ; and declnres .. 

 close of both catalogue* that there were numberless pieces besides of 

 Bede's which he had not seen. Pit* has enlarged even this catalogue : 

 it is hardly necessary to say that the appropriation of many of tlum 

 is quite arbitrary. 



The 'Historic Ecclesiastics ' wu printed for the first time about 

 1474, in the type which passes for that of Conrad l-'yin-r of Esliug ; a 

 sopy of it is preserved in the liibliothcque du Hoi at Paris, and there 

 in another copy in tlio library which the Right Honourable Thomas 

 Greuville bequeathed to the British Museum. It i* a volume of extreme 



* " Acclpo tuum calsmnm, tempera, ct scribe vclocilcr." The reader who 

 may be desirous to arrive at the exact meaning of lhl passage (one of tome 

 interest in an antiquarian point of view, and which hu bctn oiti'cn-ntly n n- 



icrod by almost every translator), will find It amply di>cuaicd and i'.lu- 

 wltb much cuiloui learning In vols. x., xt., and iii. of NoU and Uurrio ; ' 

 bnt the learned anootatora appear to be quite unable to agree a> to the literal 

 meaning. Tb* most feasible >uirgctlan, If tbe above rendering be objrcud to, 

 that of Mr KmrrNin Trnnaut, thai ' atramentum ' la la bo undentoud, and 



hat conarquentljr Inatrad of * mending your pen, 1 it ibould be ' moisten ymir 

 lak 'tbe Ink being krpt, as It U at present nucrc teed pens are used, fiilur 

 dry or as paste. 



