BOS 
getic. Of his fermons he feldom wrote down more than 
the heads, which, after deep meditation in the clofet, he en¬ 
larged upon in the pulpit with ready and copious eloquence. 
His printed (ermons are rather bold and mafterly (ketches, 
than finiftied compofitions. His funeral orations are con- 
lidered as fuperior to every production of the kind in the 
French language, and as excelling all others in fublimity 
and pathos. 
Having completed his theological courfe at Paris, he 
became doftor of the Sorbonne in 1652, and fpent fome 
years at Metz, of which church he was made a canon. On 
going back to the capital, he gained fuch celebrity by his 
fermons, as to be appointed in 1661 to preach before the 
king. During his (lay at Verfailles he maintained the 
dignity of the clerical character, and fhowed himfelf above 
praCtifing the arts of a courtier. It was without any fo- 
licitation on his part, that the bifhopric of Condom was 
bellowed on him; and even this, when he was chofen to 
be the dauphin’s preceptor, in 1670, he refigned, left the 
duties of thefe two important offices ffiould interfere with 
each other. In this lituation he wrote for the ufe of his 
pupil his Difcourl'e on Univerfal Hiftory, which is confi- 
dered as the moft mafterly of all his performances. When 
the young prince’s education was completed, Louis XIV, 
to reward the clofe attention Bofluet had paid to it, 
railed him, in 1681, to the fee of Meaux. The compara¬ 
tive leifure he then enjoyed was devoted to the defence 
of the church againft both infidels and proteftants, Spe¬ 
cially the" latter, of whom, fome that came over to the 
eftabliffiment, actually were, or pretended to be, converted 
by his arguments. All his polemic writings, and parti¬ 
cularly his View of the DoCtrine of the Catholic Church, 
and his Hiftory of the Variations of the Proteftant Churches, 
are diftinguiffied by logical acutenefs and weighty expref- 
fions, and difplay his dexterity in expofing the weak fide 
of his adverfaries, and bringing forward no topics on his 
own but fuch as are moft plaufible and ftriking. Thus 
vre have feen this great man (hine forth as an orator, and 
as a controverfialiit. In a light perhaps (till more refpefta- 
ble, and certainly more engaging, he next appears, retired 
to his dioceie, and devoting his leifure to the duties of his 
epifcopal and paftoral functions, and particularly to the 
anftruiftion, comfort, and relief, of the unlettered, the af- 
fli<5ted, and the indigent, to whom his houfe was always 
open. Peafants and children were felefl objefts of his at¬ 
tention in his clerical vifits. It was whilft engaged in this 
truly Chriftian work that he ended, in 1704, a life which 
had been remarkably Itudious, and uniformly dignified. 
It ought to beobferved to his honour, that, though a zea¬ 
lous advocate for the doctrines of the church of Rome, he 
was no friend to perfecution, and expreffed his difappro- 
bation of the feverity with which the Huguenots were 
treated. 
Boffuet’s works are very numerous. A collection of 
them was made in 1743, in lavols. 4to. to which was ad¬ 
ded a fupplenaent of 5 vols. 4to. and the Benedictines of 
St. Maur have publifhed twelve volumes of a new and im¬ 
proved edition. They chiefly confifts, befides thofe above- 
mentioned, of controverfial treadles, explanations of ferip- 
ture, moral and theological writings, Sec. He wrote a de- ■ 
fence of the declaration of the French clergy on ecclefi- 
altical power, in Latin, a language in the ufe of which 
he did not excel; whereas, in his own tongue, notwith- 
ftanding fome inequalities, he mult ever be efteemed a 
claffic. The French academy, which gave him admiifion 
in 1671, boafts of him as one of the members from whom 
it derives the higheft honour. 
BOS'SUS,^ \boJ[u, Fr. hunch-backed.] In ichthyology, 
a genus of fifties, ereCted by Bloch ; the fame with the 
Linntean genus Kurtus, which fee. 
BOS'SUT, a village of Hainault, celebrated for a battle 
fought on the fourtn of November, 1792, between the French 
republican army, under general Dumourier, and the Auf- 
tnans; in which the latter were defeated, 150 being kil¬ 
led, and 200 made prifoners; the lols of the French faid 
to be only twenty : fix miles from Mons, 
BOS 231 
BOST, a town of Perfia, and capital of a province of 
Sableftan : thirty miles fouth of Candahar. 
BOS'TON, the chief town of the county of Suffolk, 
in North America, and the capital not only of Maffachu- 
fetts, but of New England : 225 miles north-eait of New 
York, and 310 north-eaft of Philadelphia. Lat. 42. 18. N. 
Ion. 71. W. Greenwich. It is built on a peninfula of an 
irregular form, at the bottom of Maflachufetts bay. The 
neck or ifthmus which joins the peninfula to the conti¬ 
nent, is at the fouth end of the town, and leads to Rox- 
bury ; the length of the town itfelf is not quite two miles, 
the greateft breadth is one mile and 139 yards; the build¬ 
ings of the town cover about one thoufand acres. In 
this town there are feventy-nine ftreets,thirty-eight lanes, 
and twenty-one alleys, exclufive of fquares and courts 5 
and about eighty wharfs and quays very convenient for 
veffels ; the principal wharf extends 600 yards into the fea, 
and is covered on the north fide with large and conveni¬ 
ent (tores; it far exceeds any other wharf in the United 
States. Here are feventeen places for public worlhip ; of 
which nine are for congregationalifts, three for epifcopa- 
lians, two for baptifts, one for quakers, one for univerial- 
ifts, and one for catholics : there are alfo feveral public 
fchools, ftate-banks, See. The other public buildings are 
the Jlate-houfe, court-houfe, gaol, Faneuil-hall, alms- 
houfe, work-houfe, bridewell, powder-magazine, Zee. The 
building which was formerly the governor’s houfe, is now 
occupied, in its feveral apartments, by the council, trea- 
furer, and fecretary ; the two latter hold their offices in 
it. Moft of the public buildings are handfome, and fome 
of them elegant. The town is irregularly built; but, as 
it lies in a circular form around the harbour, it exhibits 
a very pifturefque view from the fea. On the weft fide 
of the town is the mall, a very beautiful public walk, 
adorned with rows of trees, and in view of the common, 
which is always open to refrefhing breezes. Beacon-hill, 
on which a handfome monument, commemorative of 
fome of the moft important events of the American war, 
has lately been erefted, overlooks the town from the weft, 
and affords a fine variegated profpeft. The harbour is 
fafe, and large enough to contain 500 (hips at anchor, in 
a good depth of water; while the entrance is fo narrow as 
fcarcely to admit two (hips abreaft. It is diverfified with 
forty little iflands, which afford rich pafturage, hay, and 
grain. About three miles from the town is the caftle, 
which commands the entrance of the harbour. At an 
annual meeting in March, feven feleft men are chofen for 
the government of the town; at the fame time are elected 
a town clerk, a town-treafurer, twelve overfeers of the 
poor, twelve fire-wardens, twelve clerks of the market, 
and twelve conftables, belides a number of other officers. 
Attempts have been made to change the corporation from 
its prefent form to that of a city ; but, the propofal not 
being confonant to the wiffies of the people, it has been 
rejected. Bofton was fettled as early as the year 1630, 
from Charlefton. The peninfula was originally called 
Shawmut; but the inhabitants of Charlefton, from the 
view they had of three hills, called it Trimountain. The 
new inhabitants, however, named it Bofton, out of re- 
fpedt to the Rev. Mr. Cotton, formerly a minifter of Bof¬ 
ton in England, who was then expected in America, and 
was afterwards miniller of their firlt church. The prin¬ 
cipal manufaftures are, rum, beer, paper-hangings, of 
which upwards of 24,000 pieces are annually made, loaf- 
fugar, cordage, cards, fail-cloth, fpermaceti and tallow 
candles, and glafs; there are thirty diftilleries, two brew¬ 
eries, eight fugar-houfes, and eleven rope-walks. The me¬ 
tropolis of Maflachufetts will always be noted as having 
begun the American war, for particulars of which fee 
vol. i. p. 438. 
BOS'TON, a confiderable borough-town in Lincoln- 
fliire. Bofton is an abbreviation for Botolp/i’s town, from 
Botolph, a Saxon, who had a monaftery there, and is fup- 
poled to have been its founder. It (lands in that divifion 
of the county of Lincoln called Holland, and is nearly fur- 
rounded by the fens 5 a great part of which have, within 
2 
