BURNET -BURNING GLASS. 



subsequently of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 

 shire. 



BURNET, Thomas, a learned divine and philosopher, 

 was born at Croft, in. Yorkshire, about 1635, edu- 

 cated under Dr Ralph Cudworth, at Cambridge, and 

 afterwards travelled as tutor to several young noble- 

 men. In 1681, he made himself known by his Telluris 

 sacra TAeoria, which he subsequently translated into 

 English. After the revolution of 1688, B. was ap- 

 pointed chaplain in ordinary, and clerk of the closet 

 to king William. In 1692, he published his Archao- 

 logia Philosophica, sine Doctrina antiqua de Rerum 

 Originibus. The freedom of opinion displayed in this 

 work led to the removal of the author from the clerk- 

 ship of the royal closet. He died in September, 1715, 

 and was interred in the charter-house chapel. Two 

 posthumous works of this author appeared in 1 727 a 

 treatise De Fide et OJficiis Christianorum ; and another, 

 De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium. All the works 

 of B. exhibit him as an ingenious speculator, rather 

 than as a patient and sober inquirer concerning the 

 moral and natural phenomena of which he treats. 

 His great work, the Theory of the Earth, is one 

 of the many systems of cosmogony, in which 

 Christian philosophers have attempted to reconcile 

 the Mosaic account of the creation, paradise, and 

 the deluge, with the traditions of the ancients and 

 the principles of modern science. His speculations 

 are recommended by sublimity of description and elo- 

 quence of style. In his Archeeologia Philosophica, 

 the doctor has combated the literal interpretation of 

 the history of the fall of man ; and, to expose its im- 

 probability, he has introduced an imaginary dialogue 

 between Eve and the serpent, which, as coming from 

 the pen of a divine, is singular enough. It is only to 

 be found in the first edition of the work. 



BURNETT, James ; better known by his official title 

 of lord Monboddo, as judge of the court of session in 

 Scotland. He was born, in 1714, at the family seat 

 of Monboddo, iu Kincardineshire. After studying at 

 Aberdeen, he went to the university of Groningen, 

 whence he returned in 1738, and commenced practice 

 as an advocate at the Scottish bar. In 1767, he was 

 raised to the bench on the decease of his relative, lord 

 Miltown. He distinguished himself by his writings 

 as a metaphysician, having published a Dissertation 

 on the Origin and Progress of Language (1771-76, 3 

 vols. 4to ;) and Ancient Metaphysics (1778, &c., 3 

 vols. 4to). Lord Monboddo was an enthusiastic ad- 

 mirer of ancient literature, and especially of the works 

 of Plato, and other Grecian philosophers. His works 

 contain many interesting observations, but also ex- 

 hibit some strange and paradoxical opinions. Thus 

 he seriously advocates the existence of satyrs and 

 mermaids ; and has advanced some whimsical specu- 

 lations relative to a supposed affinity between the 

 human race and the monkey tribe, which exposed 

 him to a good deal of ridicule on the first publication 

 of his theories. Both his official and his private 

 character were extremely respectable ; and he was, 

 notwithstanding his eccentricities, a man of learning 

 and ability. He died, in consequence of a paralytic 

 stroke, at Edinburgh, May 26, 1799. 



BURNEY, Charles, an eminent composer and writer 

 on music, was born at Shrewsbury, in 1726, and be- 

 gan his studies at Chester, under the organist of the 

 cathedral there, continued them at Shrewsbury, under 

 the direction of his half-brother, Burney, and com- 

 pleted them in London, between 1744 and 1747, un- 

 der doctor Arne. In the latter year appeared his 

 first compositions. His musical pieces, Alfred and 

 Queen Mab, composed in 1749, made him known. 

 In 1751, he obtained the place of organist at Lynn 

 Regis, in Norfolk. Here he commenced his General 

 History of Music, and determined to visit all the in- 



stitutions in Europe, at which he could obtain impor- 

 tant information for his work. In 1760, he returned 

 to London, at the request of the duke of York, where 

 his compositions, and the musical skill of his eldest 

 daughter, then eight years of age, excited admiration. 

 In 1769, the university of Oxford bestowed on him the 

 honorary degree of doctor of music. In 1770, he 

 visited France and Italy, and, two years afterwards, 

 the Netherlands and Germany, for the sake of his 

 great work. He published an account of both tours. 

 After his second return, he became a fellow of the 

 royal society. In 1776 appeared the 1st volume of 

 his General History of Music from the earliest Ages 

 to the present Period (4to) ; the 2d in 1779, and the 

 3d and 4th in 1789. He is the author also of several 

 other valuable works, among which are the Memoir 

 of Handel, and several musical compositions. He 

 died in April, 1814, in the office of organist at Chelsea 

 college. He wrote most of the musical articles in 

 Rees' Cyclopaedia. B. had a numerous family, seve- 

 ral members of which have highly distinguished 

 themselves. His second daughter, Francisca d'Arblay, 

 authoress of the well-known novels Evelina, Cecilia, 

 and Camilla, has recently published a memoir of her 

 father. 



BURNEY, Charles ; second son of the historian of 

 music ; a classical scholar and critic of high reputa- 

 tion. He was born at Lynn, in Norfolk, in 1757, and 

 received his education at the charter-house school, 

 and the universities of Cambridge and Aberdeen ; 

 distinguished himself as a writer in the Monthly Re- 

 view, to which he contributed many articles on classi- 

 cal literature ; subsequently entered into holy orders, 

 and obtained some preferment in the church. He died 

 hi December, 1817; and his valuable collection of 

 books, many of them enriched with manuscript notes, 

 was purchased by parliament for the British museum. 

 B. published an appendix to Scapula's Greek Lexicon 

 from the MSS. of doctor Askew ; a valuable edition 

 of the choral odes of JEschylus, the Greek tragedian ; 

 the Greek Lexicon of Philemon ; remarks on the 

 Greek verses of Milton ; an abridgment of Pearson's 

 exposition of the creed ; and a sermon preached at 

 St Paul's : besides which he printed, for private dis- 

 tribution, a small impression of the Latin epistles of 

 doctor Bentley and other learned scholars. 



BORNING-GLASS ; a lens which unites the rays of 

 light that fall upon it in so narrow a space as to cause 

 them to kindle any combustible matter coming in 

 their way, like fire. The same name has been some- 

 times given, though improperly, to the burning- 

 mirror. The lenses commonly used as burning- 

 glasses are convex on both sides; these bring the 

 rays upon a point with the greatest force, because of 

 the shortness of their focal distance. The effects of a 

 burning-glass are more powerful in proportion as its 

 surface is greater, and its focus smaller. That such a 

 glass may produce its greatest effect, it is necessary 

 that the rays of the sun should fall upon it in a per- 

 pendicular direction, which is the case when the 

 image of the sun, that appears at the moment of 

 burning, is circular. If a second lens, of a smaller 

 focal distance, is placed between the first and its 

 focus, so as to intercept the rays which pass through 

 the first, they are still more condensed, and united in 

 a still narrower compass, so that the effect is greatly 

 augmented. The Greeks and Romans seem to have 

 been acquainted with burning-glasses, or, at least, 

 with a kind of transparent stones similar to them. 

 They became more known in the 13th century. At 

 the close of the 17th, von Tschirnhausen caused the 

 largest burning-glasses, consisting of one piece, that 

 are known, to be polished with incredible pains. 

 Two of them, still in Paris, are 33 inches in diameter, 

 and the weight of one amounts to 160 pounds. Both 

 4s 2 



