BEL 



BEIIMENISTS, in church history, a 

 sect of Christians, who derive their name 

 from Jacob Behmen, a German mystic and 

 enthusiast, whose distinguishing' tenets 

 were, that man has the immortal spark of 

 life, which is common to angels and de- 

 vils ; that divine life of the light and spirit 

 of God makes the difference between an 

 angel and devil, the latter having distin- 

 guished this divine life in himself; but 

 that man can only attain to the heavenly 

 life of the second principle through the 

 new birth of Jesus Christ : that the life 

 of the third principle is of the external 

 and visible world. Thus, the life of the 

 first and third principles is common to all 

 men, but the life of the second principle 

 only to a true Christian or child of God. 

 Behmen was a pious man, and his princi- 

 ples were adopted by oar countryman 

 William Law, a worthy divine of the 

 church of England ; but in general to a 

 bye-stander, the Behmenites seem to try 

 how they can talk on religion so as not to 

 be intelligible. 



BE J ARIA, in botany, so called in ho- 

 nour of a Spanish botanist, a genus of the 

 Dodecandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Bicornes : Rhocloden- 

 dra, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx 

 seven-cleft ; petals seven ; stamina four- 

 teen; berry seven-celled, many seeded. 

 There are two species found in New Gra- 

 nada. 



BEING, in metaphysics, includes not 

 only whatsoever actually is, but whatso- 

 ever can be. The various kinds of beings 

 have been referred into three distinct 

 classes, and they have been considered as 

 either substances or modes, finite or infi- 

 nite, and natural, artificial or moral. Na- 

 tural beings are all those things that have 

 a real and proper existence in the uni- 

 verse, and are considered as formed and 

 ordained by God the Creator ; such are 

 men, beasts, trees, &c. Artificial beings 

 are made by the contrivance or opera- 

 tions of men, whether they are of a more 

 corporeal nature, such as houses, statues, 

 &c. or whether they relate to intellectual 

 matters, as words, sciences, verse, &c. 

 Moral beings are those which belong to 

 the conduct and government of intelli- 

 gent creatures, or creatures endowed 

 with understanding and volition, consid- 

 ered as lying under obligations to parti- 

 cular actions. 



BELL, a well known machine, ranked 

 by musicians among the musical instru- 

 ments of percussion. 



The metal is usually composed of three 

 parts of copper and one part of tin. Its 



colour is greyish-white ; it is very hard, 

 sonorous, and elastic. The greater part 

 of the tin may be separated by melting 

 the alloy, and then pouring a little water 

 on it. The tin decomposes the water, is 

 oxidised, and thrown upon the surface. 

 According to Swedenberg, the English 

 bell-metal is usually made from the sco- 

 riae of the brass gun foundry, melted over 

 again. The proportion of tin in bell- 

 metal varies. Less tin is used for church 

 bells than clock-bells ; and in small bells, 

 as those of watches, a little zinc is added 

 to the alloy. According to Gerbert, the 

 conch of the East Indians is composed of 

 tin and copper, in the same proportion as 

 in bell-metal. 



The constituent parts of a bell are, the 

 body or barrel, the clapper on the inside, 

 and the ear or cannon on which it hangs 

 to a large beam of wood. 



The sound of a bell consists in a vibra- 

 tory motion of its parts, much like that 

 of a musical chord. The stroke of the 

 clapper must necessarily change the 

 figure of the bell, and of a round make it 

 oval ; but the metal having a great de- 

 gree of elasticity, that part will return 

 back again which the stroke drove far- 

 thest off from the centre, and that even 

 some small matter nearer the centre than 

 before; so that the two parts, which be- 

 fore were extremes of the longest diame- 

 ter, do then become those of the short- 

 est : and thus the external surface of the 

 bell undergoes alternate changes of fi- 

 gure, and by that means gives that tre- 

 mulous motion to the air, in which the 

 sound consists. 



M. Perrault asserts, that the sound of 

 the same bell is a compound of the sound 

 of the several parts of it ; so that where 

 the parts are homogeneous, and the di- 

 mensions of the figure uniform, there is 

 such a perfect mixture of all these sounds 

 as constitutes one uniform, smooth, even 

 sound, and the contrary circumstances 

 produce harshness. To confirm this, he 

 observes the different tone of the bell, 

 according to the part of it that is struck ; 

 and yet, strike it where you will, there is 

 a motion of all the parts. He therefore 

 considers bells as composed of an infinite 

 number of rings, which have different 

 tones, according to their different dimen- 

 sions, as chords of different lengths have, 

 which, when struck, the vibrations of the 

 parts immediately struck determine the 

 tone, being supported by a sufficient 

 number of consonant tones in other parts. 



It has been found by experience, that 

 bells are heard farther, if placed on 



