B R U 
tury. We have by him, i. Caprices d'Imagination, or Let¬ 
ters on divers Subjects, umo. In this work the author 
appears as a phyfician, lrietaphylician, moralift, and critic, 
a. A Tieatife on Fevers, 1746, 3 vols. nmo. 3. Obfer- 
vatjons on the Cure of the Gout and Rheumatilm, by 
Hoffmann and James. 4. Differtations on the Uncertainty 
of the Signs of Death, 1746, 2 vols. 1 zmo. and many others. 
BRU'IN (John de), profefforof natural philofophy and 
mathematics at Utrecht, was born at Gorcum in 1620. 
He went through a courie of philofophy at Leyden; and 
then purfued his Andies at Bois-le-Duc, where he was 
very much efteemed by Samuel des Marets, who taught 
philofophy and divinity in that place. He went from 
thence to Utrecht, where he learnt the mathematics, and 
then removed to Leyden, where he obtained leave to teach 
them. He was afterwards made profeffor at Utrecht; 
where he taught diffeCtions, and explained Grotitis’s book 
De Jure Belli et Pacis. He had uncommon (kill in differ¬ 
ing animals, and was a great lover of experiments. He 
made alfo obfervations in aflronomy. He publifhed differ¬ 
tations De vi Altrice, De Corporum Gravitate et Levitate, 
De Cognitione Dei Naturali, De Lucis Caufa et Origins, 
See. He had a difpute with Ifaac Vollius, to whom he 
wrote a letter, printed at Amderdam in 1663 ; wherein 
he cites Vodius’s book De Natura et Proprietate Lucis, 
and drenuoufly maintains the hypothefis of Defcartes. In 
1655 he married the daughter of a merchant at Utrecht, 
fider to the wife of Daniel Elzevir, the famous bookfeller 
of Amderdam ; by whom he had two children who lived 
but a few days. He died in 1675, and his funeral oration 
was pronounced by Grsevius. 
To BRUISE, v. a. [ infer, Fr.] To crufh or mangle 
■with the heavy blow of fomething not edged or pointed ; 
to crudi by any weight; to beat into grofs powder; to 
beat together coarfely: 
As in old chaos heav’n with earth confus'd, 
And liars with rocks together crtifh’d and bruis'd. Waller. 
BRUISE,_/i A hurt with fomething blunt and heavy : 
I fince have labour’d 
To bind the bruifes of a civil war, 
And flop the iffues of their wading blood. Dryden. 
BRUI'SER,/! A perfon famous for boxing, 
BRUISE'WORT,/. An herb ; the fame with Com- 
y R E Y. 
BRUIT, f. [bruit, Fr.] Rumour; noife; report.—A 
bruit ran from one to the other, that the king was (lain. 
Sidney. 
To BRUIT, v. a. To report; to noife abroad; to ru¬ 
mour. Neither the verb nor the noun are now much ufed, 
*—It was bruited , that I meant nothing lefs than to go to 
Guiana. Raleigh. 
BRU'KA, or Bruko, a town of Africa, on the fouth 
toad of the river Gambia : 160 miles from the fea. 
BRUK'SAL, an i(land of Africa, in the river Senegal, 
near the mouth. 
BRU'LON, a town of France, in the department of the 
Sarte, and chief place of a canton, in the diftriCt of Sable ; 
three leagues nortli of Sable, and fix wed: of Le Mans. 
BRU'MA,/. [from £pa%Eiadj/Aspa, a fhort day.] Mid¬ 
winter ; the fhorteft day. 
BRU'MA,/. One of the three divine powers, which 
conditute the fupreme or triple god of the; Hindoos. See 
Hindoostan. 
BRU'MAL, adj. [brumalis, Lat.] Belonging to the win¬ 
ter.—About the brumal foldice, it hath been obferved, 
even unto a proverb, that the fea is calm, and the winds 
do ceafe, till the young ones are excluded, and forfake 
their neds. Brown. 
BRUMA'LES PLANTFE, J. [from bruma, winter.] 
In botany, plants which flower in winter, 
BRUMA'LIA, J. in Roman antiquity, fedivals of 
Bacchus celebrated twice a-year; the fird on the 12th of 
the kalends of March, and the other on the 18th of the 
Vo l.'III. No. 141. 
B R U 455 
kalends of November. They were indituted by Romu. 
lus, who during thefe feads ufed to entertain the fenate. 
Among other heathen fedivals which the primiiive Chrif- 
tians were much inclined to obferve, Tertullian mentions 
the brumae or brumalia. 
BRU'MATH, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Rhine, and chief place of a canton, in the dif¬ 
triCt of Haguenau : two leagues fouthffouth-wed of Ha- 
guenau, and three north of Strafburg. 
BRUMOY' (Peter), a very dillinguidied Frenchman, 
born at Rouen in 1688, and entered into the fociety of the 
Jefuits in 1704. After teaching the belles lettres in the 
country, he was called to Paris, and charged with the edu¬ 
cation of the prince of Talmont, as alfo with fome articles 
in tiie Journal de Trevoux. He died in 1742, after hav¬ 
ing fignalized himfelf by his literary productions ; the 
chief of which are, 1. Le Theatre des Grecs, &c. or. 
Theatre of the Greeks, containing tranflations of Greek 
tragedies, with difeourfes and remarks upon the Greek 
theatre, 3 vols. 4to. This is a very profound work ; the 
tranflations are as elegant as faithful, and the whole is full 
of tade. Some think that in his parallels of ancient and 
modern pieces, he has done too much judice to the for¬ 
mer, and too little to the latter. This may be true ; but 
it is, perhaps, equally true, that Perrault, La Motte, Vol¬ 
taire, and others, who have thus leaned to the fide of the 
moderns, had not fcholarfliip enough to read the ancients 
in their original languages, and therefore could not be 
competent to a juft and proper criticifm upon them. The 
above work has been publifhed in Englifli, in 3 vols, 4to. 
2. A Collection of divers Pieces in Profe and Verle, in 4 
vols. nmo. 
BRUMPT, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Rhine : eight miles north of Strafburg, 
BRUN (Anthony le), an ambaffador of Spain, famous 
for his fkili in negociating, was of an ancient and noble 
family, and born at Dole in 1600. He was attorney-ge¬ 
neral in the parliament of Dole; during which time he 
conducted all the (late negociations which concerned the 
provinces. He was Cent afterwards by Philip IV. to the 
diet of Ratilbon, and from thence to the court of the em¬ 
peror Ferdinand III. He was one of the plenipotentiaries 
of his Catholic majefly, at the conferences of Munfler, in 
1643 ; where, though the other plenipotentiaries took pre¬ 
cedence of him, yet it is faid he far exceeded them all in 
capacity. He was a man of letters, and employed his pen 
as well as his tongue in the fervice of his mailer. He died 
at the Hague, during his embaffy, in 1654. 
BRUN (Charles le), an illudrious French painter of 
Scottifli extraction, and born in 1619. His father was a 
(tatuary by profeflion. At three years of age it is reported 
that he drew figures with charcoal; and at twelve he drew 
the picture of his uncle fo well, that it (till paffes for a fine 
piece. His father being employed in the gardens at Se- 
guier, and having brought his fon along with him, the 
chancellor of that name took a liking to him, and placed 
him with Simon Vouet, an eminent painter, who was 
greatly furprifed at young Le Bran’s amazing proficiency. 
He was afterwards fent to Fontainbleau, to take copies of 
fome of Raphael’s pieces. The chancellor fent him next 
to Italy, and fupported him there for fix years. Le Brun„ 
on his return, met with the celebrated Pouflin, by whole 
converfation he greatly improved himfelf in his art. Car¬ 
dinal Mazarin, a good judge of painting, took great no¬ 
tice of Le Brun, and often fat by him while he was at work. 
A painting of St. Stephen, which he finifhed in 1651, 
raifed his reputation to the higheft pitch. Soon after this, 
the king, upon the reprefentation of M. Colbert, made 
him his firft painter, and conferred on him the order of 
St. Michael. His majefly employed two hours every day 
in looking over him, whilft he was painting the family of 
Darius at Fontainbleau. About 1662, he began his five 
large pieces of the hiftory of Alexander the Great, in 
which he is faid to have fet the aCtions of that conqueror 
in a more glprious light than (Quintus Curtius in Iris bin 
