BEN 



inquired for him, and on his approach, laid hold of his hand 

 and prcffed it to his heart. The clofe of the earl's life was 

 fpent in retirement at Bnlflrode, where he employed himfelf 

 in acls of charity, and in the improvement of his line gardens. 

 He died Nov. 23, 1709, in the 6l(l year of his aj;c, and was 

 buried in Wcltminller Abbey. He left children of both 

 fexc'i by his two wives, Anne, dau^rhter of fir Edward Vil- 

 liers, and Jane, daughter of fir John Temple. 



His temper was, like that of his royal malter, grave, fe- 

 date, and inclined to referve ; and his demeanour fomewhat 

 lofty, without pride. Althoujrh he was an object of jealoufy 

 and enmity, thefe were more national and politic il than per- 

 fonal ; and his general character was that of an able and up- 

 right ftatefnian, conn;6ted with private virtue. Eio<j. Brit. 



BENTIVOGLIO, Guiuo, Cardinal, was born of a 

 noble family at Ferrara in 1579; and after having iludied 

 at Padua with great reputation, he returned, in 1597, to his 

 own country, where he difplayed niucii dexterity in recon- 

 ciling his brother, the marquis Hippolito, v,'ith cardi:ial Al- 

 dobi-andini, the general of the church, andin conchiding peace 

 between the pope and Ccefar. Having finiflied thefe tran- 

 faftions, he was appointed by pope Clement VI II. his pri- 

 vate chamberlain, and allowed to complete his ftudies at 

 Padua. He then fettled at Rome, and by his prudence 

 and integrity acquired general f !leem. After having perform- 

 ed, from 1607 to 1619, the office of nnncio in Flanders, and 

 alfo in France till the year 1 62 i , he was raifed to the dignity 

 of cardinal by pope Paul V. He was alfo appointed by 

 L.evi'is XIII. proteftor of the French nation in Rome ; 

 which office he declined on becoming bifhop of Terracina 

 in 1641. On the death of Urban VIII. in 1644, he was 

 thought to be the moft proper pcrfon for the honour of fuc- 

 ceeding him ; but when he entered the conclave, in the hot- 

 ted and moft unhealthy feafon of the year, he was feized 

 with a fever, which terminated in his death on the 7th of 

 September, at the age of 65. The principal ot his works, 

 which are held in high cftimation, are his " Hi'.lory of the 

 Civil Wars in Flanders," written in Italian, and lirft pnblilhed 

 at Cologne in 1634, and fince tranflated into foreign lan- 

 guages ; " Memoirs" of himfelf, an " Account of Flan- 

 ders," and a collection of " Letters," reckoned tlie moft 

 approved fpecimens of epiftolary writing in the Italian lan- 

 guage. Moreri. Gen. Biog. 



Bentivoglio, in Gevgmphy, a fmall town and fortified 

 palace of Italy, in the ttates of the church ; 10 miles north 

 of Bologna. 



BENTLEY, Richard, in Bivyrnjjhv, a very eminent 

 critic, was born at Oulton, near V/;!keficId in Yorkfnire, 

 on the 27th of January 1661-2, and after receiving the 

 rudiments of claffical learning at the free fchool of V/ake- 

 field, was entered in his 15th year at St. John's college, Cam- 

 bridge. In 1681, he left the univerfity, and became a 

 fchool-mafter at Spalding. From this fituntion he was foon 

 removed to be preceptor to the fon of Dr. Stilling fleet, 

 dean of St. Paul's, who appointed him to be his domtftic 

 chaplain. In February 1691-2, he publiilied his firft work, 

 which was a Latin epillle to Dr. Mill, containing " Critical 

 Obfervations on Malkla's Chronicon ;" and about the fame 

 time he had the honour of being felefted as the nrft perfon 

 to preach Boyle's ledure, founded for the vindication of 

 natural and revealed religion. The fubjeft of the eight 

 difcourfes, which he dehvered on this occafion, and which 

 were afterwards publiflied and tranflated into moft of the 

 modern languages of Europe, was the folly of athtilm, or 

 the confutation of this abfurd and joylefs fyftem from the 

 faculties of the foul, from the ftrudlure and origin of human 

 bodies, and the origin and frame of the world itfelf. Whilil 



BEN 



he carried on this leftnre, he maintained aphilofophical cor- 

 refpondence with fir Ifaac Newton, whofe friendfhip he 

 ardently cultivated, nor did he write any thing on this oc- 

 cafion without this illuftrious philofopher's approbation. 

 In 1692, he was inftalled bv bifliop Stillingflcct a prebend 

 of Worcefter ; and in the following year he was appointed 

 keeper of t!ie royal library at St. James's. In 1696, he was 

 admitted to the degree of doctor of divinity ; and he deliver- 

 ed a difcourfe on the day of t!ie public commencement 

 from I Pet. iii. 15. It is faid, that he was foon after ad- 

 mitted, " ad eundem," in tSe univerfity of Oxford. His 

 " Annotations on C.iUiinachus," were inferted in an edition 

 of t!;at poet, publifhed in 1697, by Grxvius ; and in tlie 

 fame year Dr. Bentley hmiR-lf publiflied, at the end of Wot- 

 ton's Reflections o-m Ancient and Modern leaniing, liLs 

 " Difiertations on the Epiftles of Themiftocles, Socrates, 

 Euripides, Phalaris, and the fables of iEfop." This pub- 

 lication was fuccseded by a literary controverfy, which en- 

 gaged at the time a great degree of public attention. The 

 immediate fubjeft of this controverly was the genuinenefs 

 of the epiftles of Phalaris. In order to give our readers 

 fome notion of its rife, progrtfs, and iilue, we (hall de- 

 tail the following particulars. Soon after Dr. Bentley uas 

 made royal librarian, the honourable Mr. Boyle, who was 

 about to publilh an edition of the fuppofed epiftles of Pha- 

 laris, applied, by means of a bookldlcr in London, to Dr. 

 Bentley, for the ufe of a MS. in the king's libriry, which, 

 after much folicitation and delay, was at length obt lined ; 

 but before the collation could be completed, and indeed, 

 about fix days after the manufcript had been delivered, it 

 was redemanded by Dr. Bentley, with many flighting and dif- 

 paraging exprefiions, both of Mr. Boyle, and the work. 

 This conduft, Mr. Boyle, in the preface to his edition of 

 Phalaris, publicly relented ; and in return, Dr. Bentley, ia 

 the above-mentioned difiertalion, endeavoured to evince the 

 fpurioufncfs of the epiftles that had been publiftied, adding 

 fome refleftions on Mr. Boyle's edition and verfion. In 



1698, Mr. Boyle retorted, with effufions of wit and perfonal 

 abufe, in a treatife entitled " Dr. Benlley's Dilfertation on 

 the epiftles of Phalaris, and the fables of jEfop examined," 

 and commonly known by the title of " Bnyle againft Bent- 

 ley," a fecond edition of which was publiihed in 1742. In 



1699, Bentley recriminated in the lame ftyle, in a piece 

 ufually denomip.ated " Bentley againft Boyle," reprinted 

 in 1777, by Meffrs. Bowyer and Nichols, with feveral notes 

 and obfervations, collected from, or communicated by, 

 biihops Wiirburtoa and Lowth, Mr. Upton, Mr. W.Clarke, 

 Mr. Markland, Dr. Salter, Dr. Owen, and Mr. Toup. 

 Among the v^-ks and critics, who united as auxiliaries of 

 Boyle, were Swift, Pope, Garth, and Middleton ; and it 

 miift be allowed, that they proceeded with an unwarrantable 

 feverity in attacking the moral charafter and literary ac- 

 quirements of their adverfary. Bentley, however, though 

 unaided, fuftaincd the conteft with unyielding firmnefs, and 

 in the event with fuU fuccefs, fo far as the authenticity of the 

 epiftles afcribed to Phalaris is concerned. Since prejudice and 

 palhon have fubfided, it has been very generally acknowledged 

 that Bentley had not only the evident advantage with re- 

 fpeft to learning and argument, but that he is little, if at all, 

 inferior to his antagonift in point of wit and fmartnefs. The 

 reputation of Dr. Bentley, during the .progrefs of this lite- 

 rary fquabble, was not very materially affected ; for before 

 its complete termination, he was prefented by the crown, 

 in 1700, with the honourable and lucrative office of niafter 

 of Trinity college, Cambridge ; and in the following year 

 collated archdeacon of Ely. In the former ftation, he in- 

 troduced refornij and curtailed falaries, and thus incurred 



the 



