BEHRINO, VITC& 



BELISARIUi 



tales, love letter*, and truuUtioM both in prow tod vene. The once 

 oel.bratod UUn between a nobUauko and hk aUei-iu lw (Udy 

 Henrietta Berkeley tod to* infamous Lord Ony) are hen. Sueoontri- 

 boUd Uw paraphrase of (Eoon* 1 * ' Letters to 1'aria,' in the Eugliab 

 coUetion of Ovid 'Epistles;' and translated FonUnelle* Plurality 

 of World*, 1 and the aixth book of Cowleys UUn poem on ' Plant*.' 

 Both her opinion* and her talonU naturally brought her aoquaiuted 

 with the leading wiU of the day. the wildest and th* sUidest, Rochester, 

 Etherec*. Charles Cotton, Dryden, Southern, Ac. At one time ahe 

 describe* henelf a* baring been foraed to writ* for her bread ; but 

 during the Utter part of her life ahe appear* to have been in more 

 eacy circumstance*. She died between forty and fifty yean of age, 

 and wa* buried in the doieter* of Westminster Abbey. 



Aphara Behn i* deeeribed a* having been a graceful comely woman, 

 with brown hair, and a piercing eye; something paaaionate, but 

 generooe ; and who would sooner f jrgive an injury than do one. She 

 would write in company, and at the eamo time take her part in the 

 conversation. The character of Mr*. Behn'* writings i* that of a lively 

 mediocrity, availing iUelf of all the licence of the age. She wrote 

 ome eoane but pleating little novel*, chiefly taken from the French ; 

 ome clever aong* and poetical transitions ; and a aet of drama*, 

 Qooosfful in their day, and aitounding for their II mill iiimiee* 



BBHKIN'U, VITUS, was by birth a Dane, and in hi* youth made 

 many voyage* to the Eut and Weet Indie* ; but being tempted by the 

 great encouragement held out to able mariner* by Paler the Great, he 

 early entered the nary of Russia, and served in the CroniUdt fleet in 

 the wan with the Swede*. lie obtained tlio rank of lieutenant in 

 1707, and of captain-lieutenant in 1710. In 1732, previous to letting 

 oat on hi* lait expedition, be wa* promoted to the rank of captain- 



The Empree* Catherine being anxious to promote discovery in the 

 north-cut quarter of Asia, and to settle the then doubtful question as 

 to the junction of Alia and America, Bearing wa* appointed to com- 

 mand an expedition for that purpoee. Ho left St. Petersburg in 

 February 1725, and after exploring several rivers, travelled over-land 

 by the way of Yakutsk, on the Lena, to Okhotsk, then crossed over 

 to BolchereUk, and *rrived at Niihnei-Kamtohatka-Ostrog. Here he 

 built a small boat, and aailed on the 20th of July 1728, coasting 

 till he reached in August (67* 18' N. lat by his observa- 



e) a cape which, from the land beyond it trending so much to the 

 westward, he supposed to be the north-easternmost point of Asia. In, 

 this conjecture however, a* ha* since been proved, Behring was mis- 

 taken ; the point reached by him must have been Serdce Katnen : but 

 with this conviction on his own mind, and the approach of winter, he 

 determined to retrace hi* steps, and he returned in safety to Nishnei 

 Kamtcbatka. It U pretty certain that he did not reach the strait 

 which ha* ainco received hi* name. The following yoar he made 

 another attempt in an opposite direction, and reached Okhotsk, having 

 doubled the southern promontory of Kamtchatka, which pe 



op to that time gen-rally believed to join Japan. 



peninsula 

 From Okhotak 



he went to St. Petenburg, 'and, having 'obtained hi* promotion, in 

 17S8 took th* command of an expedition for the purposes of discovery, 

 which was fitted out on a very large scale. After several exploratory 

 excursions, he stationed himself at Yakutsk, directing various detach- 

 ment of hk officer* down th* riven on different point* of the Frozen 

 Oeean. In 1740 he reached Okhotsk, where ve***U had previously 

 been built for him, in which he sailed for Awataka Bay, where he 

 founded the settlement of Petropaulovaki, and paesed the winter. 

 Hi* discoveries to the northward being deemed eumciently satis- 

 y, he was now directed to proceed to the eastward towards the 

 i continent. He left Awataka in June 1741, steering to the 

 t; bat having reached the parallel of 46 without leeing 

 land, he Herod hi* eonrao to the north-east, and on the 18th of July 

 (having ben forty-four day* at sea) be descried very high mountain* 

 with mow in 681* N. lat, having made, according to hi* 

 60 degree* of K. long, from Awataka. He now followed 



to th* northward, which was found to take a very westerly 

 ) ; bat hi* crew suffering from lioknees, and th* ship being in 

 duabled utate from bad weather, he resolved to return to 

 ika, whieh however he never reached. Having passed several 

 ship wa* wreaked on the ialand which now bean hi* name, 

 oa the Srd of November 1 74 1. Behring died from cold and exhaustion 

 .-.>... M <>.,', m . . vi, 



In the following summer the unrvivon of hi* crew reached Kam- 

 tchatka in a *mairre*e*l which they built from the wreck, and tlm. 

 ome account of this diewtrou* voyage wa* preserved. With regard 

 to the plaee* that be touched at on th* Am.rioaa shorr, they must be 

 very undefined ; but the faet of the weeUrly trending of the coast, 

 and th* high mountain*, seem to place hi* first landfall about 

 Admiralty Bay. on that part of the coast now called New Norfolk. 

 The island* mentioned by him must bar* been ome of the Aleutian 



. Xrcowrf of Xsuriea M*wrer.) 



BKKKBR, IMMANOBL, wa* born at Berlin in 1785. He first 

 tadiod at the Gray Convent in the* city, under the late O. L. Spalding. 

 Tneno* be removed to the University of Halle, in 1808, where he 

 became the moot iH*Hii.*JliH scholar of the celebrated F. A. Wolf, 

 who at a subsequent period, a* the person best fitted to continue his 



philological labours, named Bskker. In 1807 ha was appointed pro- 

 fessor of philology in th* University of Berlin; and in My 1810 

 travelled to Pan* to avail himself of the treasure* in the Imperial 

 Library there, and more especially to compare and collate the manu- 

 scripts of Plato, a* al*o those of some Greek orators and grammarian*. 

 He returned to Berlin with hi* acquisitions in 1812. In 1815 he was 

 elected a member of the Academy of Science* at Berlin, and in the 

 same year wa* requested by that body to repair again to Paris, in 

 order to avail himself of the paper* of Fourmont, for a projected 

 'Corpus Inscriptionum Qrmoorum,' a task which he completed witliin 

 the same year. In 1817 the Academy again commissioned him to 

 journey to Italy, in order to unite with Qoscheu in deciphering the 

 palimpsest manuscript of the Institute* of Gnius, wlicli bad been 

 discovered at Verona by Niebuhr. He was also to collect material* 

 for an edition of Aristotle, which he had undertaken. In pursuance 

 of these object*, he pawed two winters in Home, where, through tho 

 introduction of Niebuhr, he was readily admitted to all the beat 

 libraries. He visited also, for similar inretigatiou8, Florence, Venice, 

 Naples, Montecassino, Catena, Ravenna, and Milan. In 1111'.' lio 

 travelled through Turin to Paris. The summer of 1820 he spent in 

 England, chiefly in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, returning in the 

 autumn by Leyden and Heidelberg to Berlin. Hi* labour* a* an 

 author during this period were neither few nor unimportant; and 

 those which have succeeded them lince he settled at Berlin have boon 

 equally interesting to the classical student and the philologist. His 

 fint publication the ' Aneodota Qnoca,' in 8 vols., of which the first 

 appeared in 1814, the last not till 1821 wa* a favourable specimen of 

 hi* industry and knowledge. Then foUowed editions of Plato, in 

 10 vols., 1816-23; of Thucydides; of the Attic orator*, containing 

 Demosthenes and other Athenian orator*, in 7 vols., first published 

 at Oxford in 1823 ; of Photius ; of the Scholia of Homer's ' Iliad,' 

 2 vols., 1825 ; of ArUtotle, 4 vol*., 1831-36 ; of Tacitus, 2 vola., 1831 ; 

 and of Sextua Empirioug, 1842. To these must be added an active 

 co-operation in the production of the ' Scriptores Historic Hyzautiujc,' 

 for which he prepared, among others, Cedrenui, Ducas, Glykas, Korip- 

 pus, Merobaudes, ic., Ac. He ha* also written for the Journal of 

 the ' Akademio der Wiasenschaften of Berlin,' essays upon the Romance 

 language, upon the romance of Aipremont, and upon Provenyal 

 poetry. (Convertotient Ltrii-on.) 



BELIUOK, liKRNAKI) FOREST DE, was born in Catalonia in 

 1697 or 1698. He wa* th* son of a French officer, and his father 

 and mother dying very shortly after his birth, he was adopted 

 by another officer, who brought him to France. Under the care 

 of hi* protector's brother, who wa* an officer of engineers, Belidor. 

 who had studied the elements of mathematics with attention, aaw the 

 sieges of Bouohain and Quesnoy before he was sixteen yean old. 

 Shortly afterwards he was employed to assist Caasini and Lahire in 

 their continuation of the measure of tho degree. Subsequently he wa* 

 appointed professor at the school of artillery of La Fere. Having lost 

 this office he became in 1742 aide-de-camp to General Segnr in Bohemia 

 and Bavaria, and was made prisoner at Linz. By close study he became 

 an eminent engineer, and wa* much employed in Germany, Italy, and 

 Flanders. He wa* elected a member of the French academy in 1756 ; 

 was made inspector of arsenals in 1758, and brigadier and inspector- 

 general of mines in 1759. He died at Paris in 1761. 



The work* of M. Belidor have even now sotno authority among 

 military engineer*, and he advanced every branch of their science, 

 particularly mining. The works of Belidor are as follows: 17:15, 

 Nouveau Coun de Mathematique ; ' 1729, 'La Science dee Inge- 

 nieurs;' 1731, ' Bombardier Francais ;' 1737 and 1739, the fint two 

 volumes of the 'Architecture Hydraulique' (the last two volume* 

 appeared in 1750 and 1753); 1755, 'Dictionnaire Portatif do 1'Iugd- 

 nleur;' 1764 (erroneously dated on it* own title 1754), posthumous 

 work, ' CEuvre* Diverse*,' Ac., relating to fortification and mining. 

 There are memoirs by M. Belidor in toe ' History of the Academy of 

 Sciences,' from- 1737 to 1766. 



HKUSA'KIUS, a general of the lower empire, under Justinian I., 

 was born at Oermauia in Illyria about A.D. 505 : of his parentage 

 nothing is known. He make* hi* fint appearance in history a* one 

 of th* body-guard of Justinian, at that time heir to the throne. The 

 liyzantina empire wa* then, about 525, at war with Persia, and Bali- 

 aariu* exercised his fint command in an expedition into Penarmonia. 

 On hi* return he wa* nominated to the government of Dare, an im- 

 portant fortified town in the northern part of Mesopotamia, near tho 

 fr"iiti"r of Armenia, where he took into his service, as secretary, the 

 historian Procopins, whose writings are our principal authority for 

 the event* of hi* life. In 627 Justinian came to the throne, and by 

 hi* orden Beliaariu* proceeded to build a fortress at Mindou, near 

 Dan. The Penian* commanded him to ilmist, and on his refusal 

 marched against him, defeated his troop*, and razed the works. U'e 

 may conclude however, that no blame attached to him, as shortly 

 after we find him appointed general of the East, with the conduct of 

 the Penian war. In the year 630 he defeated the enemy in the deci- 

 sive battle of Dan ; and in the following year he repulsed, by a aeries 

 of nkilful manoeuvres, a considerable army, which had invaded Syria 

 on the side of the detert, and advanced so far as to threaten Antioch. 

 Being however compelled by his troop* to give battle, contrary to his 

 own inclination, at Callinicnm, a town at the junction of tho rivera 



