B O E 



632 



BOG 



Boeiliius. 



work, written partly in prose, and partly in verse, 

 IS thrown imo the form of a conference between the 

 Author and Philosophy, who endeavours to soothe 

 him in his afflictions. He begins by complaining of 

 the miserable state to which he is reduced, when his 

 divine instructor, to assuage his distresss, reminds 

 him of the instability of fortune, and of the large 

 portion of happiness which he had so long enjoyed. 

 Yet the supreme good, she assures him, consists not 

 in the wealth, the honour, or even the safety which 

 he had lost, but in the enjoyment of God alone. 

 Hence it follows that the good alone are in posses- 

 sion of real happiness ; and although the wicked 

 may often enjoy apparent felicity, and the virtuous 

 may sink in occasional distress, this is only the na- 

 tural result of the moral government of the Deity 

 over beings free and accountable, whose actions and 

 motives he now watches attentively, aim whom he 

 will afterwards equitably judge, to reward and punish 

 them according to their deeds. 



About a year, or somewhat more after his confine- 

 ment, the messengers of death were dispatched by 

 Theodoric, to terminate the sufferings of the virtu- 

 ous and heroic sage. The manner of his execution 

 is variously recorded. According to some histo- 

 rians, he was beheaded : but others inform us, that a 

 strong cord was fastened round his head, and for- 

 cibly tightened till his eyes almost started from their 

 sockets ; and that, in this agonising state, he was 

 beaten with clubs till he expired. Thus perished 



Boethius ; a man against whom calumny has been 

 able to allege nothing worse than a generous indig- 

 nation against the oppressors of his country, am! a 

 patriotic eagerness for its liberty. " With Boethi- 

 us," says Mr Harris, " the Latin tongue, and the 

 last remains of Roman dignity, may be said to have 

 sunk in the western world ;" yet his genius survived 

 to diffuse a ray of knowledge over the darker ages 

 of the Latin world ; and his virtues and sanctity 

 were supposed by his credulous admirers to be ho- 

 noured by the testimony of a miracle at his death. 

 No author has ever been more popular than Boe- 

 thius, especially before the revival of literature had 

 restored to light the productions of the happier ages 

 of Greece and Rome. His Consolation of Philosophy 

 was translated by two of the most illustrious mo- 

 narchs that ever filled the British throne, Alfred and 

 Elizabeth. Chaucer translated it into prose, and a 

 verse translation of it was printed in the monastery 

 of Tavistock, in Devonshire, in 1525. It was like- 

 wise translated into English by Sir Richard Graham, 

 secretary to King James II. who was committed to 

 the Tower on a charge of high treason in 1690, and 

 suffered a tedious imprisonment. His translation was 

 printed at London in the year 1695. See Gibbon's 

 History, vol. vii. p. 42 50. Lntield's Lives of the 

 Philosophers, vol. ii. Le Clerk's Biblioth. Choit, 

 torn. xvi. General Dictionary, vol. hi. () 



BOG. See Draining. 



BOGOTA. See Santa fe de Bogota. 



Eoethiut 



II 

 Bogota. 



BOHEMIA, 



Bohemia. A kingdom in Europe, forming part of the Austrian 

 dominions, and bounded on the west by part of the 

 electorate of Saxony, the principality of Culembach, 

 and the Upper Palatinate ; on the north by Misnia, 

 Lusatia, and Silesia ; on the east by Moravia, Sile- 

 sia, and the county of Glatz ; and on the south by 

 Austria and Bavaria. It stretches from 48 30' to 

 51 5' N. Lat. in an oval figure of about 951 geo- 

 graphical square miles. 



The whole country resembles an immense bason or 

 concavity, and its bottom forms a plain considerably 

 elevated above the level of the sea. It is surrounded 

 on every side by high mountains ; on the north-east 

 by the Sudetes mountains, and the Ricsengebiirge ; 

 on the south-east and south, by the mountains of 

 Moravia ; on the west, by the Bohmerwaldgebiirge, 

 (Lat. Sytva Gabrcta, or Hercynia,) ; and on the 

 north, by the Erzgebiirge. A very considerable por- 

 tion of these moun'ains is composed of the first or 

 oldest granite formation, on which rest gneiss, mica, 

 slate, clay slate, various porphyries, and other primi- 

 tive rocks ; and these are covered with floctz sand- 

 stone, limestone, and various rocks of the newer trap 

 formation. Even the highest summits of the Boh- 

 inerwaldgeburge are covered with a kind of brush- 

 wood ; but the elevated parts of the Riesengeburge 

 are almost bare, and, in sheltered hollows, snow re- 

 mains during the whole year. The loftiest and most 

 ?ked branch of this chain i6 called, in German, Rie- 



sengebiirge, the mountains of the giants. The Su- 

 detes resemble an immense rampart, surmounted by a 

 train of other ramparts, placed almost transversely. 

 Their principal masses are composed of granite, 

 round which, as a nucleus, are formed strata of po- 

 phyry, and mica and clay slate. On the south- 

 east the granite disappears, and the mountains dwin- 

 dle. This intermediate chain, which connects the 

 Sudetes with the Carpathian Alps, is called by 

 a general name Moravian Hills, or Gezenkergeb- 

 iirgc, lowered mountains. The mountains of Carsle- 

 berg and Maunhast gird Bohemia on the south, and 

 touch, on the west, the hills named the Forest of 

 Bohemia, (Bohmer Wald,) which are much less ele- 

 vated than the Sudetes, and are clothed with verdure 

 almost to the summits. At the western extremity 

 of Bohemia, the Fichtclgebiirge, or mountain of pines, 

 rises to the height of 3630 Rhenish feet, and forms 

 a common centre to the three chains which separate 

 Franconia from Saxony, as well as Bohemia from 

 Saxony and Bavaria. The Fichtelberg is an assem- 

 blage of mountains, precipices, shelves, and ravines ; 

 and on the summit there was formerly a lake, now 

 converted into a marsh. Between Saxony and Bohe- 

 mia, run the mountains naiued Erzgebiirge, or me- 

 tallic mountains, which join the Sudetes in Lusatia. 

 On the side of Saxony, these mountains rise to the 

 height of 3600 or 3700 feet above the level of the 

 sea. On the side of Bohemia, they present a great 



7 



Bohemia. 



