BEL 



fon -or pei-fona, afTtfrting or atteftir.g the truth of any matter 

 propofed. Ill thii) fenfc belief (lands oppofed to knowledge 

 and Iciencc. \V^c do not fay we believe that fiio«' i« white, or 

 that the wiiole is equal to its parts ; but we fee and know 

 them to be fo : that the three angles of a triangle are equal to 

 tv.'O right angles, or that all motion is naturally reftilincar, 

 are not faid to be things credible, but fcientilical ; and the 

 ComprehenUon of fuch truths ii not belief, but fcience. 

 But when a thing propounded to us is neither apparent to 

 our fenfe, nor evident to our underftandiiig ; neither cer- 

 tainly to be collected from any clear and neceffary conneftiou 

 with the caufe from whence it proceeds, iior with the effefts 

 which it naturally produces ; nor is taken up upon any 

 real arguments, or relation thereof to other acknowledged 

 truths : and yet, notwiihftandiiig, appears as true, not by a 

 manifcftation, but by an attellation of the truth, and moves 

 us to alfent, not of itfelf, but in virtue of a teftimony given 

 to it — this is faid to be properly credible : and an alfent to 

 this is the proper notion of belief or faith. 



A judicious writer (Price's Review of the principal quef- 

 tions in Morals, p. 15^) is of opinion, that all the general 

 grounds of belief or alfent, may be comprehended under the 

 three following heads: viz. ift. Immediate confciouliieis 

 (which fee), or feeling ; whence we acquire the knowledge of 

 our own exillence, and of the feveral operations, pafiions, and 

 fenfations of our own minds ; and to this head may be re- 

 ferred the information we derive from our powers of recol- 

 lection and memory ; 2dly, Intuition (which fee) ; and to 

 this we owe our belief of all fclf-evident truths, our ideas of 

 the general, abllraft afftdlions and relations of things, our 

 moral ideas, and whatfoever elfe wedifcover, without making 

 ufe of any procefs of rcafoning ; and 3dly, Argumentation or 

 Induftion. See thefe articles. See alfo Assent and 

 Taith. 



BELIENE, in Gcip-aphy, a village of Egypt, d'pending 

 on the grand fchcik, and agreeably lituated between two 

 canals ; 12 miles fouth of Girge. 



BELIEVERS, in Ecckjiajlkal H'ljlory, an appellation 

 given towards the clofe of tlie firll century to thole Chrii- 

 ■ tians who had been admitted into the church by baptilm, 

 and inllrufted in all the myfteries of religion : they had 

 alfo accefs to all the parts of divine wordiip, and were autho- 

 rilcd to vote in the ccclefialUcal alfemblies. They were 

 thus called in contradillindtion to the catechumens, wlio had 

 not been baptized, and were debarred from thefe privileges. 

 BELILLA, in Botany. See Muss;enda. 

 BELIM, in Geography. See Belem and Para. 

 BELINA, a town of European Turkey, in Bofnia, 

 about midway between Banjaluka and Belgrade. 



BELION, a name given to a river of I^ufitani'a, called 

 slfo Limias, I-inixus, Lethe, and the river Oblivion, in An- 

 cient Geography, was the boundary of the expedition of Deci- 

 mus Brutus. His foldiers, when they arrived at this river, 

 refufed, from motives of fuperllition, to crots it ; upon 

 ^vhich he fnatched an enfign out of the hand of the bearer, 

 and parted over, by which his army was encouraged to fol- 

 low (Livy). He was the firll Roman who ever proceeded 

 fo far, and ventured to crofs. The appellation, according to 

 Strabo, took its rife from a fedition that occurred in a mili- 

 tary expedition between the Celtici and 'I'urduli after crof- 

 fing this river, in which the general v\as flain, fo that they 

 remained difperfed there ; and from this circum dance it 

 was called the river of I^ethe, or Oblivion. (Cellarius.) It is 

 now called " El IJmn," and runs wellward into the Atlan- 

 tic, to the fouth of the Minho. 

 BELISAME. SeeBtLASAMA. 



BEL 



BELISAMA, or Belizana, in Myihohsy, a ratne gi- 

 ven by -tlie Gauls to their Minerva, or to the goddefs who 

 was the inventrtfs of the arts. She was reprefcnted with a 

 helmet adorned with a plume, clothed in a tunic, without 

 lleeves, and covered with a mantle called " peplum." Her 

 attitude, with her head loaning on her right hand, was that 

 of a perfon in a profound reverie. Human vidims were 

 facriliced on her altars. 



BELISARIUS, in Bhgraphy, l4ie Africarms of New 

 Rome, was born, and probably educated, among the Thracian 

 peafants ; and advanced from the humble llation of one of 

 the private guards of JuIHnian, then general ol the Roman 

 forces, and afterwards emperor, in which he had ferved with 

 valour and repul-ilion, to diitinguilhed military command. 

 I'lider the new title of General of tiie Eall, he encountered 

 the Perllan army near the fortrefs of Dara, on the confines 

 of Perfia, with a much inferior force, both as to the number 

 and quality of his troops, and obtained a decifive vittorj'. 

 In the next camjjaign, A.D. 530, he hallened from Dara 

 to the relief of Syria, which was invaded by the Periians ; 

 and though he was defeated in an engagement which the 

 impatience of his troops had precipitated, he faved his army 

 from the eonfequcnces of their own ralhnefs, and the vitlory 

 of the Perlian commander was fo dearly purchaled, that it 

 was foon followed by peace. Belilarius, on his return to 

 Conllantinople, rendered effcntial fervice to the emperor 

 Jullinian, by quelling a dangerous fedition. In 533, the 

 fupreme command of the ileet and army, deRincd tor the 

 African war, was delegated to Belifarius, with an unlimited 

 power of acting according to his own dilcretion, as if the 

 emperor hiinfelf were prefent. After a voyage of three 

 months, in which he had repeated opportunities of txer- 

 ciling his talents as a comm,ander, he dilembarked his troops 

 on the African coall. Immediately upon their landing an in- 

 itance of pillage occurred, which gave him occafion for in- 

 culcating* the maxims of juilice, moderation, and genuine 

 policy. " When I firll accepted the commifiion of fubdu- 

 ing Africa, I depended much lefs" faid the general, " on the 

 numbers, or even the bravery of my troops, than upon the 

 friendly difpofition of the natives, and their immortal ha- 

 tred to the Vandals. You alone can deprive me of this 

 hope ; if you continue to extort by rapine, what might be 

 purchafed for a little money, fuch ads of violence will re- 

 concile thefe implacable enemies, and unite them in a jult 

 and holy league againit the invaders of their country." His 

 exhortations, accompanied by rigid dilcipline, produced the 

 moft falutary effect. The inhabitants, iiiftead of delerting 

 their lioufes. or hiding their corn, lupplicd the Romans with 

 a fair and liberal market ; the civil officers of the province 

 continued to exercife their funtfions in the name of Julli- 

 nian ; and the clergy, from motives of confcience and in- 

 terell, affiduoully laboured to promote the caufe of a catho- 

 lic emperor. In his progrcfs towards Carthage, he defeat- 

 ed, with great flaughter, the formidable army collected by 

 GeliiVier, and entruiled to the conduft of his brother and 

 nephew, and reduced the king himftlt to the iieceiiity of 

 feeking his fafety by a precipitate fliglit. 



Belifarius, having taken pufl'enion ot the city, rellorcd, 

 with incredible difpatch, its walls and ditches, which the heed- 

 lefsnefs and indolence of the Vandals iuid lulfered to de- 

 cay. The defeat of Zano, the brothir of Gelimer, a:ul 

 the pufillanimous flight of the king himlelf, terminated the 

 conquell of Africa in the manner already related under the 

 article Africa, which fee. Belifarius, on his return to Con- 

 llantinople in 534, obtained a fplendid triumph, and was 

 created fole conlul for the cnfuing year. I'he day of his 

 inauguration rcfembled the pomp of a fecond triumph ; his 

 6 curule 



