B R Y 



The clamour excited by tlicfe pamphlets almotl exceeded 

 belief. The author was attacked in all companies without 

 mercy, and even by men from the prcfs, wlio fliould have 

 thought more fobcrly, for having indulged fo cxceffivo a 

 fcepticifm, as could not, in its moll dirttl efTccts, but be 

 pernicious to the caule of divine revelation. Such cenfurcs, 

 however, when duly weighed, could be difgractful only to 

 their authors, \^hore want of temper, or of judgment, ren- 

 dered them unable to difciiminate. 



Amongll Mr. Uryaiit's pri[icipal opponents were Mr. Gil- 

 bert Wakctiuld, Mr. Morrit, and Dr. Vincent : but though 

 the champions fur the war Itrenuoudy alfailed their antago- 

 nill, fevcral of Mr. Bryant's objedlions remain as yet un- 

 anfvvercd. 



In the following year Mr. Bryant fubmittcd to the puWic 

 a work of a dilicrent kind and charadler, under the title of 

 " The Sentiments of Philo Judsus concerning the AOrOi", 

 or Word of God, together with large Extrafts from his 

 Writings, compared with the Scriptures in many other par- 

 ticular and tflential Doflrines of the Chriiliau Religion." 

 But, learned and curious ns this treatife unquellionably is, it 

 appears to have intertlled the general re.ider Icfs perhaps 

 than any of his other produftions. In addition to thofe al- 

 ready noticed may be added his " Obfcrvations on famous 

 controverted Paflagcs in JulHn Martyr and Jofephus," and 

 a pamplet addreiTcd tr. Mr. Melmoth, written with lefs tem- 

 per than miglit have been wiflitd. Mr. Bryant clofed his 

 labours with a qiiarto volume of DifTertations on the pro- 

 phecy of Balaam ; the (landing ftill of the fun in the time 

 of Jolliua ; the jaw bone of the afs with which Sampfon flew 

 the Philillines ; and the hillory of Jonah and the whale : 

 fubjefts in themfelvt; exceedingly curious, and treated with 

 much ingenuity ; but thefe tratts upon them having been 

 written above thirty years before, Mr. Br)'ant in reviling fo 

 altered, as, through a deleft of memory, to render the re- 

 marks in one part inconfiftent with thofe in another, which 

 materially diminifhed the value of the whole. 



Other writings to a conliderable extent ftill remain in the 

 hands of his executor, who is faid to have fubmitted them 

 for publication to a competent judgment. 



In forming a general eftimate of Mr. Bryant's literary 

 charafter, it will be found that, as aclaflical Icholar, he had 

 few equals ; his acquaintance with hiftory and the topics of 

 general information was of very uncommon extent, but from 

 the want of Oriental literature and the ftrifter fcienccs he 

 yielded too often to the impulfes of a vigorous fancy. It 

 will, notwithllanding, be found from repeated perufals of 

 his writings, that he defervedly ranks amongll the foremoll 

 of his age ; and from having confecrated his great talents 

 and acquil'itions to the fervice of religion, will be ever en- 

 -titled to the veneration of mankind. 



In his perfon Mr. Bryant was lower and more delicately 

 formed than men in general, and confequently lefs capable of 

 ftrong exercifc ; but, in eaily lite he bad great agility, par- 

 ticularly in fwimming, a circumltance which enabled him to 

 fave Dr. Barnard, afterward head mailer of Eton, when 

 drownin.";. In his ordinary habits of life he was remarkable 

 for his temperance, and though his lime and ifudies were 

 principally devoted to literature, and the purfuit of truth, yet 

 his converfation with thofe he received and converfed with 

 was nncommnnly fpritely, as he never failed to mix enter- 

 taining anecdote with inllruftion. In his perfon he was 

 particularly neat, and in his deportment courteous. His 

 liberality wa? often conlpicuous, and the fpirit of religion 

 diffufed itfelt through all his aftions. As few comparatively 

 live fo long, inftances of fuch exemplaiy merit can but 

 rarely be found. Elcded trom Eton to King's, in i73'», 



Vol.. V. 



B R Y 



he proceeded bachelor of art." in 1740; in 1744, took the 

 degree of mailer, and died, after a long relidence, at Cy- 

 penham, near Windfor, on the 14th of November, 1804, 

 of a mortilication in his leg, occafioned by a hurt from the 

 tilting of a chair in reaching down a book from its flielf. At 

 his own drfne, Mr. Br) ant was interred in his parifh church, 

 beneath the feat he there occupied. 



BRYAN T'S Coite, in dogrnphy, lies on the ead coaft 

 of Newloundland, half a league vS.W. from Harbour Grace, 

 and two and a half leagues to the fouth-weil of Spanifh bay, 

 in which there is good fifhing for boats. 



Bkvant's /./V/, a foulh-ead branch of Green river, th« 

 mouth of which is about 2}' miles E. of Craig's fort, and 10 

 E. of Sulphur fpring, in Mercer'.s county, Kentucky. 



BRYANTHUS, in Botany (Gmcl. Sib.) See Andro- 

 M E n .'V bryantha. 



BllYE, John Theodori; di;, in Biography, excelled 

 in the art of deligniiig and engraving. He was a native of 

 Liege, but rcfidtu chieily at Franckfort, where he carried 

 on a confiderable com.merce in prints. His talle was formed 

 on the works ot Scbald Beham. He feldom ufcd the point, 

 but worked almoft wholly with the graver. His (lyle of 

 engraving was neat and free, excellently adapted to fmall 

 fubjedts, comprehending many figures ; fuch as funeral pa- 

 rades, proctfiions, &c. His drawing was very correft ; 

 his heads fpirited and exprcffive, and the other extreinities 

 of his figures well marked. His back-grounds, though 

 flight, are admirsbly touched. He died March 27, 1598. 

 His great works were the plates for the full four volumes of 

 Boidard's Roman Antiquities ; the plates for illuflrating 

 the Manners and Cuftoms of the Vitginians, copied by Pi- 

 cart in his Religious Ceremonies of all Nations ; the p'atcs 

 to the I^atin Narrative of the Cruelties of the Spaniards in 

 America, publilhed in ijqH, and his " Defcriptio India: 

 Orientalis et Occidentalis," 5 vols. fol. 1598; and among 

 other detached prints his " Procefiion for the Funeral of Sir 

 Philip Sidney," engraved at London, 1578. Strutt. 



BRYENNIUS, Nicephorus, was a native of 

 Oreltia in Macedonia, and married the princefs Anna 

 Comnena, daughter of Alexius Comnenus, who raifed 

 him to the rank of Cxfar, but declined announcing him as 

 his fucccflbr in prejudice of his own Ign. After the death 

 of Alexius, the emprcfs Irene and her daughter Anna at. 

 tempted to elevate Bryennius to the empire, but he refuled 

 to concur in the plot. Having been feat, in n 57, to be- 

 fiege Antioch, he fell lick, and returning to Conftantinople 

 died in that city. His hillory of the reigns of Ifaac Com- 

 nenus and of the three fucceeding emperors, was comprifed 

 in four books, and publiflied with a Latin tranflation, by 

 the jefuit PoulTines at Paris in 1661, to w-hich the annota- 

 tions of Du Cange were annexed in 1670. 



Bryennius, Mani.'el, the lall writer on mufic in the 

 Greek language that has come to our knowledge. He 

 flourifhed under t!ie elder Palxologus, about the year J 3:0 ; 

 and it is probable that he was a defeendant of the houle of 

 Brienne, an ancient French family, that went into Greece 

 during the Crufadcs, at the beginning of the thirteenth cen- 

 tury. Fabric. Bib. Gr. Du Cange. Fam. Byzant. 



The work is divided into three books, all which are con- 

 fined to harmonics : the lirll is a kind of commentary on 

 Euclid ; and the feeoiid and third little more than explana- 

 tions of the doftrines of Ptolemy. 



Meibomius had promifed a Latin trandation of this work, 

 but dying before it was finilhed. Dr. Wallis performed the 

 talk, and it now conllitutes a part of the third volume of 

 his works, publiflied at Oxford in •; vols fol. id'jQ- 



That the Greek nuilic had undergone many alterations 

 J I ' fmce 



