502 



1,1 NT1VOGL10 BF.NTLKY. 



manners, tmbtembted diameter, ami undoubted 

 eariiestm >s in the cause of tlu- people ;it large. He 

 is considered the lather of the rtilit:iri:ins, or tl.ose 

 r.ionil-political-economists, who \ie.\ e\i i\ tiling- as 

 it is affected by the principle of " the greatest hap- 

 liiness of Uie greatest number." 



BKNTIVOGUO, Conielio ; cardinal and poet, born at 

 Fen-am, 1608, of n family that held the highest 

 offices in the former republic of Bologna. He early 

 distinguished himself by his progress in the tine arts, 

 literature, philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence. 

 While ;it Ferrara, lie paironiscd the literary institu- 

 tions then-. I'D, r Clement XI. inade him his domes- 

 tic prelate, and secretary to the apostolic chamber, 

 and sent him, in 17)2, as nuncio to Paris, where, 

 during the last years of the reign of Louis XIV., he 

 acted an important part in the affair of the bull Uni- 

 genitus. The duke of Orleans, regent after the 

 death of Louis, was not favourably disposed towards 

 him ; the pope, therefore, transferred him toFerrara, 

 and, in l?i!i, bestowed on him the hat of a cardinal, 

 and employed him at first in Rome, near his own 

 * person, then as legate ti Mere in Romagna, &c. B. 

 died in Rome, 173,'. Poetry had occupied the 

 leisure hours of the learned cardinal. Some sonnets 

 c"ii',[>oM .1 by him are to be found in Gobbi's collec- 

 tion, vol. 3, and in other collections of his time. 

 Under the name of Selvaggio Porpora, he translated 

 the T/iebais of Statins into Italian. He delivered 

 several addresses before societies for the promotion 

 of the fine arts. His discourse in defence of the 

 utility and moral influence of painting, sculpture, 

 and architecture, delivered in the academy of design, 

 at Rome, 1707, was reprinted by the academy of the 

 Arcadians, in the 2d vol. of the Prose degliArcadi. 



BKNTIVOGUO, Guy or Guido, celebrated as a car- 

 dinal and an historian, was born at Ferrara, in 1579. 

 He studied at Padua with great reputation, and 

 afterwards, fixing his residence at Rome, acquired 

 general esteem by his prudence and integrity. He 

 was nuncio in Flanders from 1607 to 1616, and 

 afterwards in France till 1621. His cliaracter stood 

 so high, that, on the death of Urban VIIL, in 1644, 

 he was generally thought to be the most likely per- 

 son to succeed him ; but, on entering the conclave, 

 in the hottest and most unhealthy season of the year, 

 he was seized with a fever, of which he died, aged 

 sixty-five years. He had lived in a magnificent style, 

 and was much embarrassed at the time of his death 

 a circumstance attributed to his canvass for the 

 papacy. Cardinal B. was an able politician, and his 

 historical memoirs are such as we should expect from 

 such a man. The most valuable of these are his 

 History of the Civil Wars in Flanders, written in 

 Italian, and first published at Cologne, 1630, a trans- 

 lation of which, by Henry earl of Monmouth, ap- 

 peared in 1654 (London, folio) ; an Account of 

 Flanders, during his legation, also translated by the 

 earl of Monmouth (folio, 1652) ; his own Memoirs ; 

 and a collection of letters, which are reckoned 

 among the best specimens of epistolary writing in 

 the Italian language (an edition of which was pub- 

 lished at Cambridge, in 1727). All these, except 

 the Memoirs, have been published together at Paris, 

 1645-1648, folio, and at Venice, 1668, 4to. 



BENTLEY, Richard, a celebrated English divine 

 and classical scholar, distinguished as a polemical 

 writer, in the latter part of the 17th century, was 

 born near Wakefield, in Yorkshire, in 1662. His 

 father is said to have been a blacksmith. To his 

 mother, who was a woman of strong natural abilities, 

 he was indebted for the first rudiments of his educa- 

 tion. At the age of fourteen, he entered St John's 

 eolJegej Cambridge. In 1682, he left the university, 

 and became usher of a school at Spalding ; and this 



situation he relinquished, in the following year, for 

 that of tutor to the son of I)r Stillingfleet, dean of 

 St Paul's. He accompanied his pupil to Oxford, 

 where he availed himself of the literary treasures of 

 the Bodleian library, in the prosecution of his studies. 

 In 1684, he took the degree of A.M. at Cambridge, 

 and, in 1689, obtained the same honour at the sister 

 university. His first published work was a l.atii. 

 epistle to doctor John Mill, in an edition of the 

 Chronicle of John Malela, which appeared in 1691. 

 It contained observations on the writings of that 

 Greek historian, and displayed so much profound 

 learning and critical acumen, as excited the sanguine 

 anticipations of classical scholars from the future 

 labours of the author. Dr Stillingfleet, ha vino 

 been raised to the bishopric of Worcester, made B. 

 his chaplain, and, in 1G92, collated him to a prebend 

 in his cathedral. The recommendation of his patron, 

 and of bishop Lloyd, procured him the honour of 

 being chosen the first preacher of the lecture institu- 

 ted by the celebrated Robert Boyle for the defence 

 of Christianity. The discourses against atheism, 

 which he delivered on this occasion, were published 

 in 1694 : they have since been often reprinted, and 

 translated into several foreign languages. 



In 1693, he was appointed keeper of the royal 

 library at St James's a circumstance which inciden- 

 tally led to his famous controversy with the hon. 

 Charles Boyle, afterwards earl of Orrery, relative to 

 the genuineness of the Greek Epistles of Phalaris, an 

 edition of which was published by the lalter, then a 

 student at Christ-church, Oxford. In this dispute, 

 Bentley was completely victorious, though opposed 

 by the greatest wits and critics of the age, including 

 Pope, Swift, Garth, Atterbury, Aldrich, Dodwell, and 

 Conyers Middleton, who advocated the opinion of 

 Boyle with a degree of warmth ami illiberality which 

 appears very extraordinary. But the motives of l?.'s 

 assailants were various. Swift, in his Battle of th 

 Books, took up the cudgels against him in defenc 

 of his friend Sir William Temple ; Dr Garth attacked 

 him probably from mere wantonness, in the well- 

 known couplet in his Dispensary 



So diamonds owe a lustre to tUeir foil, 

 And to a Bentley 'tis we owe a Boyle. 



Some were actuated by personal considerations, 

 among whom was Conyers Middleton, whose per- 

 severing hostility to B., during a long series of years, 

 seems to have originated from the latter having 

 applied to the former, when a young student in the 

 university, the contemptuous epithet of fiddling 

 Conyers, because he played on the violin. It does no . 

 appear who was the author of a punning carica- 

 ture, which was produced on this occasion, repn 

 ing B. about to be thrust into the brazen bull of J'ha- 

 laris, and exclaiming, " I had rather be roasted than 

 Boyled." In 1699, B., who had three years before 

 been created D. D., published his Dissertation on 

 the Epistles of Phalaris, in which he satisfactorily 

 proved that they were not the compositions of the 

 tyrant of Agrigentum, who lived more than five cen- 

 turies before the Christian era, but were written by 

 some sophist, under the borrowed name of Phularis, 

 in the declining age of Greek literature. 



Soon after this publication, doctor B. was presented 

 by the crown to the mastership of Trinity college, 

 Cambridge, worth nearly 1000 a year. He now 

 resigned the prebend of Worcester, and, in 1701, was 

 collated to the archdeaconry of Ely. His conduct as 

 head of the college gave rise to accusations against 

 him from the vice-master and some of the fellows, 

 who, among various offences, charged him with em- 

 bezzling the college money. The contest was much 

 protracted, and occasioned a lawsuit, which was de- 



