B E A 



B E A 



Empire, and in the States where the Confeflion of A'jufhurg 

 was received, from the year 1517 to 1530. AUhough the 

 origin and progrefs of L'itheranifm be t!ie principal objects 

 of this work, in the difciiflion of wliich the author has 

 availed himfelf of the materials contained in the excellent 

 hiftory of Seckendorff, it contains alfo details and illuftra- 

 tions of feveral politico-eccleliallical tranfaftions, that are 

 not to be found in Seckendorff, or in anv other writer known 

 to us. It alfo comprehends very curious and ample details re- 

 lative to the progrefs of the reformation in France and Swif- 

 ferland, and the characters, learning, and writing; of thofe 

 who Hood foremoft in maintaining or oppofing the doftrines 

 and remonftrances of the reformers. Bea\ilobre was alfo 

 employed with his colleague the learned I' Enfant by the 

 court of Berlin in a French verfion of the New Tcftament. 

 Tliis work, of which St. Paul's epilUes fell to the ihare of 

 Beaufobre, was publifhed in 1718, in 2 vols. 410. with an 

 ample preface and notes, and was well received. Beaufobre 

 was one of the principal members of the new fociety, deno- 

 minated " Anonymous," and contributed leveral pieces to 

 the " Bibliotheque Germanique," of which journal he was 

 the direAor as long as he lived. His papers are " A Dif- 

 fertation on the Adamites of Bohemia ;" " A Difiertation 

 on the ftatue of Paneades ;" " On the Virgin Queen of Po- 

 land ;" and " Converfations on Images." But the moll elabo- 

 rate and efteemed of his works is his " Hillory of Mani- 

 cheans and of Manichcifm," in 2 vols. 4I0. French ; the firrt, 

 publifhed at Amderdam, in 1734, and the fccond, after his 

 death, in 1 739, to which is annexed a pollhumous differtation 

 fur les Nazarenes, Laufanne, 1745. '^'^ '^^ charafter of 

 this work, very generally applauded by the learned for the 

 extent of its erudition and the fingularity of its candour, 

 ■ we fhall fubjoin the following teftimonies. The celebrated 

 hiftorian Gibbon fays of it (Hift. Decl. &c. vol. viii. p. 260, 

 note) : " This is a treafure of ancient philofophy and the- 

 ology. The learned hitlorian fpins with incomparable art 

 the fyftemstic thread of opinijn, and transforms himlelf by 

 turns into the perfon of a faint, a fage. or an heretic. Yet 

 his refinement 13 fometimes excellive : he betrays an amiable 

 partiality in favour of the weaker fide, and while he guards 

 ag:\in(l calumny, he does not allow Infficicnt fcope for fnper- 

 ftiti 111 and fanaticilm." The candid and impartial Lardner 

 (\\'orks, vol. iii. p-539.)> after acknowledging his obliga- 

 tioi .s to Beaufobre, from whom however he occafionally 

 differs, fays of this work, that " it contains not only a la- 

 boured hillor>' of the Manichees, but likewife ievcral enter- 

 taining and ufeful digrcffions concerning the opinions of the 

 heatheti philofophers, and the moll early Chrillian fecls ;" 

 and he clofes v.ith exprefFnig a wilh, " that fome learned 

 man might have iuflicient leifure and encouragement to give 

 us a handfome edition of it in Englilh." " As for me," 

 fays Beaufobre himfelf (Hifl. Man. t. ii. p. 730.) " whom 

 heaven has preferved from the fpiiit of the church, who 

 knew no greater good than freedom of thought, nor any 

 more delightful employment than the fearch of truth, nor 

 rn-enter pleafure than that of finding and fpeaking it, I have 

 iludicd ecclefiailical hiilory with as little prejudice as pof- 

 fible." 



In the compcfition of his fermons, Beaufobre employed 

 much time and care, and they contained much original matter, 

 moral and theological, and a fund of the molt itriking ora- 

 tory. His talents for preaching, and his powers for conveifa- 

 tion, continued unimpaired to his fcventy-ninth year. He was 

 eminently a polilhed fcholar, and adorned a perfon, natu- 

 rally agreeable and prepoffefling, with all the acquired graces 

 of good company. The qualities of his heart were no lefs 

 diftinguifhed than the faculties of his underltandiiig. He 



was kind, generous, chearful, and difinteredcd, always ready 

 to perform adls of friendHiip, and dctelling ever)* degree of 

 malevolence and flandcr. He enjoyed life without interrup- 

 tion from the weaknefl'cs of advanced age to his 80th year, 

 and died on June 5th, 1738. Beaufobre was twice mamed, 

 and left children by both wives, of whom Chailcs Lewis 

 was pallor of a church in Berlin, and made himfelf known 

 by fonie learned works ; and Leopold was colonel of a regi- 

 ment in the Ruffian ftr.ice. Four volumes of pollhumous 

 fermons were r.-intcd at Laufanne, in 1755. Mem. fur la 

 Vic, &c. de Beaufobre, prefixed to the fecond volume of his 

 Hill, du Maniclieifni. 



BEAUSSET, Le, in Geography, a town of France, in 

 the department of the \'ar, and chief place of a canton, in 

 the di'.hict of Toulon, 7 miles N. W. of Toulon. 



BEAUTY, in a general and popular fenfe, denotes that 

 quality, oraffemblage and union of qualities in the objefts of 

 our perception, vihether they be material, intciledtual, or 

 moral, which we contem.plate with emotions of complacence 

 and pleafure ; and it is referred by many writers to a prin- 

 ciple or faculty, called by feme an " internal fenfe," and 

 by others " talte." (See thefe articles.) In a more flricl 

 and philofophical fenfe, beauty may denote that fentiment 

 or feeling which is excited in the mind by objefts of percep- 

 tion, that are adapted to infpire love, or fdme fimilar paiuon, 

 or to give pleafure. 



The word Beauty, according to Dr. Hutchefon, (En- 

 quiry concerning Beauty, Sec. p. 7.) fignifies the idea raifed 

 in us ; and a fenfe of beauty denotes our power of receiving 

 this idea, which he denominates an internal fenfe. This 

 in-jeiiious writer confiders beauty as original or abfolute, and 

 comparative or relative. By the former, however, he doe» 

 not underftand any quahty fuppofed to exifl in the object, 

 which fiiould of itfelf be beautiful, without relation to anr 

 mind which perceives it ; for beauty, he fays, hke other 

 names of fenhble ideas, properly denotes the perception of 

 fome mind ; and, therefore, by abfolute beauty he means 

 only that beauty which we perceive in objects without com- 

 pariioii to any thing external, of which the objeft is fup- 

 pofed to be an imitation or picture ; fuch as that beauty per- 

 ceived from the works of nature, artificial form?, figures, and 

 theorems. Whereas comparative or relative beauty is that 

 which we perceive in objects, commonly confidcred as imi- 

 tations or refemblances of fomething elfe. The general 

 fource of our ideas of beauty, according to this writer, is 

 uniformity amidft variety ; and what we call beautiful in ob- 

 jefls feems to be in a compound ratio of uniformity and va- 

 riety, fo that where the uniformity of bodies is equal, the 

 beauty is as the variety, and vice verfa. This pofition he 

 illuflrates by a number of examples deduced from different 

 figures, from the works of nature, fiom the inward flruflurc 

 and outward form of animals, and the proportion of their 

 parts to each other, from the harmony of found, from theo- 

 rems or univerfal truths, and from the works of art. Rela- 

 tive beauty is founded, as he conceives, on a conformity, or a 

 kind of unity between the original and the copy; and for 

 obtaining this fort of beauty it is not neceffary that there 

 fliould be any beauty in the original ; for an exatt imitation 

 may flill be beautiful, though the original is altogether def- 

 tltute of beauty. A fenfe of beauty from uniformity amidft 

 variety is, in his opinion, univerfally prevalent among man- 

 kmd ; and for the truth of the facfl, he appeals to experience. 

 The fame ingenious writer deduces all our ideas of virtue 

 from an implanted fenfe, called " Moral fenfe ;" (which fee) ; 

 and he defcnbcs moral good and evil by the effects accom- 

 panying the perception of them. 



Dr. Price, in his inquiry into the origin of our ideas of 



beauty 



