BAR 



proeefs of time the prir.ce of daikncfs, wlio h tlie fimntaiii 

 of all tvil and miierv, enticed men to fin ; in coiif- quence 

 of which, the fupieme God permitted t'.iem to be divefted 

 of thofe etherial bodies with which lie had endued them, 

 and to fall into flnggi.h and grofs bodies formed hv the 

 evil principle: and that Jefus defcended from lie'avcn, 

 clothed not with a real but r.trial body, in ord:rr to recover 

 mankind from that body of corruption which tiiey now 

 cany about them ; and that he will vaife the obedient to 

 manfions of felicity, clothed with aerial vehicles, or celeftial 

 bodies. It is faid that Bnrdtfanes at length renounced 

 the more chimerical part of his fyftcm. Eufebiiis denied 

 that he ever returned to the Catholic faith. His fedl fub- 

 iiifed for a long time in Syria, to which his 150 hymns 

 written in elegant Syriac verj' much contributed ; as they alfo 

 did to the propagation of his opinions. Moflieim's Eccl. 

 Hifl. vol. i. p. 220. Lardner's Works, vol. ii. p. 299, &c. 



BARDEVV'ICK, in Geography, a town of Germany, in 

 the circle of Lower Saxony, on the Ilmenau, fuppofed to 

 be one of the mod; ancient towns in Germany. It was in a 

 very profperous ftate, and the fee of a bifhop in 1 189, when 

 Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Biunfwick, took 

 and razed it to the ground, becaufe the inhabitants would 

 not acknowledge him after he had been profcribed by the 

 emperor Frederick L The bidioprick was then removed to 

 Verden ; and the city of Luneburgh received the advantages 

 of trade and population ; 4 miles N. of Luneburg. 



BARDEWISCH, a town of Germany, in the circle of 

 Weftphalia, and county of Dehnenhorft ; 6 miles N. of 

 Eelmenhorft. 



BARDI, a town of Italy, in the Parmefan, feated on a 

 rock near the fmall river Ceno, and capital of a marquifate, 

 to which it gives name ; 26 miles W. of Parma. 



BARD IN, a town of Perfia, in the province of Segeftan, 

 30 miles W.S.W. of Zareng. 



BARDIS, a town of Egypt, and refidence of a fcheik, 

 whofe authority extends a confiderable way along the Nile, 

 6 miles fouth of Girge. 



BARDISTAN, Cape, lies on the coaft of Perfia, in the 

 Indian ocean. N. lat. 28" o'. E. long. 52° o'. 



BARDO, a town of Piedmont, in the duchy of Aofta, 

 feated on the Doria Baltea ; 17 miles S.E. of Aofta. 



BARDONACHE, a town of Piedmont, in a valley, to 

 which it gives name; 10 miles north of Sezanne, and6 

 W.N.W. of Exilles. 



BARDOP, a river of England, which runs into the 

 Read, 6 miles N.W. of Ellfdon, in Northumberland. 



BARDS, Bardi, in Antiquity, ancient poets among the 

 Gauls and Britons, who defcribed and fung in verfe the 

 brave actions of the great men of their nation ; with defign 

 to inculcate and recommend virtue, and even fometimes to 

 put an end to the difference between armies at the point of 

 engagement. 



Bochart derives the word horn paraf, loftng. Camden 

 agrees with Feftus, that bardus originally fignifies ajinger : 

 and adds, that the word is pure Britilh. Others derive the 

 word from Bardus, a druid, the fon of Dryis, and the fifth 

 king of the Celtx. 



Amidft this uncertainty with regard to the etymology 

 of the appellation lards or leird, we may add that fome 

 have derived it from bar, which fignifies y«rv, and which 

 bears, without doubt, fome analogy to that poetic fury or 

 enthufiafm with which the poets fancied themfelves, or 

 mio-ht feign to be infpired. Among the \\'el(h, we are 

 told by others, lard is preferved as an indigenous term, 

 having an abftratt fignification, and denoting one that 

 makes confpicuous, or caufes to be revealed. By another 



BAR 



author wf arc informed that the word i(7/-(/ being a primitive 

 noun, neither derived nor compounded, it can neither be 

 traced to its root, nor refolved into- its parts. It fio-nificd 

 one who was a poet by his geoius and profeflion, and who 

 employed mucti of hij time in compufiiig and finging verfet 

 on various fubjcdts and occafions. 



The bards, it is faid, differed from the druids, in that the 

 latter were priefts and teachers of the iiation, but the for- 

 mer only poets and writers. 



Larrey, Bodin, and Pafquier, indeed, will have the bards 

 to have been pricfts, as well as philofophers : and Cluverius, 



orators too ; but without much foundation in antiquity 



Strabo divides the fcfts of philofophers among the Gaulj 

 and Britons into three, viz. the druids, bards, and cvatcs. 

 The bards, adds he, are the fingers and poets ; the evates, 

 the priefts and natural philofophers; and tl;e druids, tf» 

 natural philofophy add alfo tlie moral. Hornius however 

 reduces them to two fec^s, viz. bards and druids ; others 

 to one, and make a druid a general name, comprehending 

 all the others. Cluverius will have it, that there were bardk 

 alfo among the ancient Germans ; becaufe Tacitus makes 

 mention of their fongsand poems, which contained th.-ir hif- 

 tory. Some have diftributcd tlie ancient Britifli poets into 

 two claffes ; the firft clafs comprehending their facred poets, 

 who compofed and fung their religious hymns, and were 

 called in Greek Euha'es, in Latin Votes, and in their own 

 language Fa'ids ; the fecond comprehending all their fecular 

 poets, "who fung of the battles of the heroes, or the heavin r 

 breads of love," according to the defcription of Oilian, ai:d 

 they were called bards. The principal bulmefs of thefe bards 

 was to celebrate the praifes of the gods and departed heroes, 

 in odes and verfes, and to fing them to their harps, at their 

 religious affemblies, public feftivals, and private entertain- 

 ments. Thefe men were, in fact, tiie heralds, the clirono- 

 logers, and the hiftorians, as well as the poets of the land, for 

 they kept up the memoi-y of illiiJlrious tranfaftions, and, by 

 their compofitions, which tradition handed down topofteritv, 

 they tranfmitted from age to age the nam.es and charafters 

 of patriot! and warriors. It is remarkable that fuch a 

 clafs of perfons fubfifted in almofl all nations. They derive 

 their origin from remote antiquity, and were ever held in 

 high eftimation. Mankind have been early led to poetical 

 compofitions. Agreeable founds fli-ike at firft every ear, 

 but poetry was neceffaiy to g^ve thofe founds a lafting 

 effect. Verfe has therefore been made ufe of to preferve 

 the memory of remarkable events and great aftions. The 

 rehgious ceremonies of nations, their manners, and rural 

 labours, were alfo recorded ia numbers. Hence it was 

 that Greece could boaft of a Homer, a Hcfiod, and of other 

 poets, fome ages before an hiftorian had written in profe. 

 Amongft the Gauls alfo, and other Celtic nations, there 

 were poems compofed on various fubjefts from the earheft 

 ages. Diodorus Siculus is the firil author among the an- 

 cients, who mentions the bards as the compofers of verfes 

 which they fung to the found of an inftrument not unhke a 

 lyre (1. v. 5^31.). Ammianus MarccUinus informs us (1. xii. 

 c. 9.J, that the bards celebrated the brave afkions of illuf- 

 trious men in heroic poems, which they fung to the fweet 

 founds of the lyre. This account of thcle Greek and Latin 

 writers is confirmed by the general ftrai!; and by many par- 

 ticular paffages of the poems of Ofiian. " Beneath his 

 ovsTi tree, at intervals, each bard fat down with his harp ; 

 they raifed the fong and touched the firing, each to the 

 chief he loved." But this union between poetrv' and mufic 

 did not fubfift verj- long, in its greatefl ftrictnefs, perhaps, 

 in any country. The muilcians foon became very nume- 

 rous, and thofe of them who had not a genius for com- 

 4 K 2 poling 



