BEL 



BEL 



him to deatb. Jobates demurring aq;ainft tlie execution of 

 thffc orders, employed him in fevtral dangerous expeditions 

 againll the Solyni', and againft the Amazons, from which 

 he returned vidonouj. Having thus ingratiated himlelf 

 with Jobates, he obtained his dangliter in marriage, and a 

 fettlement in a fertile part of Lycia, where he reigned and 

 brought up his family. From Homer's account, which re- 

 prefents him as " hated by the gods, and wandering in the 

 Aleiau plain, a prey to melancholy, and avoiding all com- 

 merce with men," he feems to have become infane, and to 

 have died in that Rate. To his various exploits Homer and 

 ' other writers have annexed tlie ftory of his killing the triform 

 mo'ifter called the Chim;era, by the afTillance of the Hyiaig 

 liorfe Pegafus, granted him by Minerva and trained for his 

 ufe. Of the numerous conjetlures that have been offered 

 for the explication of this fable, we fliall only mention that of 

 Bochart, (Phaleg. I. i. c. 6.) wlio fnggelts, that in his ex- 

 pedition againil; the Solymi, he overcame them, and alfo 

 their tliree god^, which they painted on their enfigns, in the 

 fcvcral forms of a lion, a goat, and a dragon ; and which he 

 probably joined together on his own, in memory of his con. 

 quell ; and this gave birth to the fable of his killing the 

 n>onfter Chimasra. Homer. Iliad, vi. Anc. Univ. Hill. 

 ■»o!. V. p. 97, &c. 



IsELLES LETTRES, confidered as fynonymous with 

 polite ritera/iire, however vaguely and indefinitely thefe tenns 

 have been often ufed, properly comprehend thofe fnbjcits 

 that relate to man as a being endowed with fenfes of taftc 

 and imagination, which were intended to embcUifli his mind, 

 and to fupply him with rational and ufelul entertainment. 

 In this reltriCled fenfe they include the origin, ftruflure, and 

 various kinds of language, or grammar, univerfal and parti- 

 cular, criticifm, rhetoric in its whole extent of compofition, 

 llyle, and elocution ; hiftory, in its feveral departments, an- 

 cient and modern, general and Ipecial, and all the different 

 kinds of poetry. In the diftribution of the Lyceum of Arts, 

 effablilhed at Paris in 1792, the belles lettres comprehend 

 general grammar, languages, rhetoric, geograpliy, hiftory, 

 antiquities, and numifmatography ; whereas, thofe parts of 

 learning that are of a more grave, fublime, or abffrufe kind, 

 and that are more immediately the objeds of the underftand- 

 tng, fuch as logic, metaphyfics, ethics, and the various 

 branches of the mathematics and natural philofophy, are 

 iifually referred, by way of diftindtion, to the clafs of fcien- 

 ccs. Thisdiftinftion, however, is not rigidly obferved, even 

 by Rollin and others, who profeffedly treat of the belles let- 

 tre?. In their confined and appropriate meaning, they open 

 a field of inveftigation peculiar to thenifelves. Their pro- 

 vince comprehends every thing that relates to beauty, har- 

 mony, grandeur, and elegance ; every thing that can foothe 

 the mind, gratify the fancy, or move the affeflions. They 

 prefent human nature under a different afpeft froin that 

 which it affumes, when viewed by other fciences. They 

 bring to light various fprings of aftion, which, without 

 their aid, might havepaffed unobferved ; and which, though 

 of a delicate nature, frequently exert a powerful influence 

 on feveral departments of human life. Such ftudies have 

 a!fo this peculiar advantage, that they exercife our reafon 

 without fatiguing it. They lead to enquiries acute, but 

 not painful ; profound, but not dry or abftrufe. They ftrew 

 fiowers in the path of fcience ; and while they keep the 

 mind bent, in fome degree, and aftive, they reUeve it at the 

 fame time from that more toilfome labour to which it muff 

 fubmit in the acquifition of neccffary erudition, or the invef- 

 tigation of abftraft truth. Befidcs, the ftudy of polite li- 

 terature furnidies an agreeable amufemeut for thofe intervals 

 of leifure which occur in every man's life ; and thus pre- 



vents his being a burden to himfelf, or recurring to the indul- 

 gence of pernicious paffions, and the purhiit of licentious 

 pleafures. The fatisfaftions which this iludy iuiparls, oc- 

 cupy a kind of middle ftation between thofe of nitre fenfe 

 and thofe of pure intelleft : they refrelh tlie mind after the 

 tolls of intcllcd, and the labour.-, of abftratt (ludy ; and they 

 gradually raife it above the attachments of fenfe, and pre- 

 pare it for the enioyments of virtue. Of thole, whofe muidii 

 in early life incline to polite literature, good hopes may be 

 entertained, as this liberal and elegant turn is favourable to 

 many virtues ; whereas, to be cntirtly void of rclilh for elo- 

 quence, poetry, or any of the fine arts, is an unpromifing 

 fyniptom of youth, and furnillu-s fufpicions of their being- 

 prone to low gratifications, or deflined to drudge in the more 

 vulgar and illiberal purfuits of lite. A cultivated tafte in- 

 creafes fenfibility to all the tender and humane paffions, by 

 giving them frequent exercife, while it tends to weaken the 

 more violent and fierce emotions : 



" — - — Ingenuas didicifie fideliter artes, 



EmoUit mores, nee finit tile fero?." 

 " Thefe polifli'd arts have humaniz-d mankind, 



Soften'd the rude, and calm'd the 'ooiU'rous mind." 

 The elevated fentiments, and high examples which poetry, 

 eloquence, and hiftory, are often bringing under our view, 

 naturally tend to uourifh in oin- minds public fpirit, the love 

 of glory, contempt of external fortune, and the admiration 

 of what is truly illuftrious and great. Although it ftiould 

 not be laid that the improvement of tafte and virtue are the 

 fame, or that they may be always expefled to co-exift in 

 an equal degree ; yet it muft be allowed, that the exercife 

 of tatle is, in its native tendency, moral and purifying. From 

 reading the moft admired produftions of genius, in poetry 

 or in profe, almoft every one rifes with fome good impreffions 

 left on his mind ; and though thefe may not always be du- 

 rable, they are at leall to be ranked among the means of dif- 

 pofing the heart to virtue. Indeed, without poffefling the 

 virtuous affeftions in a ffrong degree, no man can attain 

 eminence in the fublime parts of eloquence. He muft feel 

 what a good man feels, if he expcAs greatly to move, or to 

 intertft mankind. They are the ardent fentiments of ho- 

 nour, virtue, magnanimity, and public fpirit, that only 

 can kindle that fire of genius, and call up into the mind thofe 

 high ideas, which attradl the admiration of ages ; and if this 

 fpirit be necefiary to prod-uce the moft diftinguiftied efforts 

 of eloquence, it muft be necefiary alfo to our rehfliing them 

 with proper tafte and feeling. Blair's Ledures on Rheto- 

 ric, and Belles Lettres, vol. i. left. i. RoUin's Method of 

 Treating and Studying the Belles Lettres, vol. i. p. 3, &c. 

 M. de Rofcnftein's Oration, delivered before the Swedifli 

 Academy, tranflated by N. G. Agander. 



BELLESME, in Geography, a town of France, and prin- 

 cipal place of a dlftrift, in the department of the Orne, con- 

 taining about 2,500 inhabitants, and diftant 3 leagues fouth 

 from Mortagne. 



BELLEVSEVRE, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Saone and Loire, and chief place of a canton, in 

 the diftrid of Louhans, 4I leagues dillant N. N. E. from 

 Louhans. 



BELLEVILLE, a town of France, in the department 

 of Paris, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of St. 

 Denis, half a league eaft of Paris. — Alfo, a town of France, in 

 the department of the Rhone and Loire, and chief place of 

 a canton, in the diftridl of Villefranche, 2} leagues north of 

 VlUcfranche — Alfo, a town of France, in the department of 

 Vendee, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of La 

 Roche-fur- Yon, one league north of La Roche. 



BELLEVOIS, in Blograjihy, a painter of fea-pieces, 



known 



