BAY 
fhould even acquaint the public with the tnidake you have 
made, and with your regret for it. This is all that re¬ 
mains to be done by you, in order to deferve my being 
entirely fatisfied with you. : As to the letter which you 
have fent me, it is mine without doubt; and, fince you tell 
me that it is printed', you will do me a pleafure if you fend 
me fome copies of it. As 1 tear nothing in France, fo 
neither do I fear any thing at Rome. My fortune, my 
blood, and even my life, arc entirely devoted to the fer- 
vice of the church ; but I flatter nobody, and will never 
fpeak any thing but the truth. I am obliged to thofe who 
have been pleafed to publifli my letter, for I do not at all 
difguife my fentiments. 1 thank God, they are too noble 
and- too honourable to be difowned. However it is not 
true that this letter was written to one of my minitters. 
As I have every where enemies and perfons who envy me, 
fo in all places I have friends and fervants: and I have 
poffibly as many in France, notwithftanding of the court, 
as any where in the world. This is purely the truth, and 
you may regulate yourfelf accordingly. But you (hall not 
get off fo cheap as you imagine. I will enjoin you a pe¬ 
nance ; which is, that you will henceforth take the trouble 
of fending me all curious books that (hall be publiflied in 
Latin, French, Spanifh, or Italian, on whatever fubjeft 
or fcience, provided'they are worthy of being looked into; 
1 do not even except romances or fatires; and above all, 
if there are any books of chemiftry, I defire you may fend 
■them to me as foon as poflible. Do not forget likevvife to 
fend me your journal. I (hall order that you be paid for 
whatever you lay our, do but fend me an account of it. 
This will be the mod agreeable and mod important fervice 
that can be done me. May God profper yon. 
Christina Alexandra.” 
It now only remained that Mr. Bayle (hould acquaint 
the public with the midake he had made, in order to me¬ 
rit that princefs’s entire fatisfaftion ; and this he did in the 
beginning of his Journal of the month of January, 1687. 
Mr. Bayle was a mod laborious and indefatigable wri¬ 
ter. In one of his letters to Mazieux, he fays, tbatdnce 
his 20th year he hardly remembers to have had any lei - 
fure. His intenfe application contributed perhaps to im¬ 
pair his conditution, for it (con beganto decline. Fie had 
a decay of the lungs, which flreakened him confiderably ; • 
and, as this was a didemper which had cut off feveral of his 
family, he judged it to be mortal, and would take no re¬ 
medies. lie died the 28th of December 1706, after he had 
been writing the greated part of the day. Voltaire ranks 
him among the mod celebrated authors of the age of 
Louis XIV. and the late Mr. Gibbon, in his Mifcellaneous 
Works, has drawn his character in the following words : 
Bayle was the fon of a Calvinid minifter in a remote pro¬ 
vince, at the foot of Pyrenees. For the benefit of education, 
the Protedants were tempted to rilk their children in the 
Catholic univeruties ; and in the twenty-fecond year of lvis 
age young Bayle.was feduced by the arts and arguments of 
the Jefuits of Touloufe. He remained about feventeen 
months in their hands, a voluntary, captive. But nature 
had defigned him to think as he pleafed, and to fpeak as 
he thought; his piety was offended by the exceffive wor- 
(hip of creatures ; and the diidy of phyfics convinced him 
of the impofiibility of tranfubdanliation, which is abun¬ 
dantly refuted by the tedimony of our fenfes. His return 
to the communion of a falling feft was a bold and dilin- 
tereded dep, that expofed him to the rigour of the laws ; 
and a fpeedy flight to Geneva protected him from the re- 
fentment of his fpiritual tyrants, itnconfcious as they were 
of the full value of the prize which they had lofh Had 
Bayle adhered to the Catholic church, had he embraced 
the ecclefiadical profeflion, the genius and favour of fucn 
a profelyte might have afpired to wealth and honours in 
his native country : but the hypocrite would have found 
lefs happinefs in the comforts of a benefice or the dignity 
of a mitre, than he enjoyed at Rotterdam in a private date 
of exile, indigence, and freedom. Without a country, or 
a patron, or a prejudice, he claimed the liberty, and l’utr- 
Vol. II. No. 105. ; 
BAY S21 
fided by the labours, of his pen. The inequality of his 
voluminous works is explained and excufed by his alter¬ 
nately writing for himfelf, for the bookfellers, and for 
poderity; and, if a fevere critic would reduce him to a (in¬ 
gle folio, that relift, like the books of the Sibyl, would 
become dill more valuable. A calm and lofty fpeftator 
of the religious temped, the philofopher of Rotterdam con¬ 
demned with equal firmnefs the perfecution of Lauis XIV. 
and the republican maxims of the Calvinids; their vain 
prophecies and the intolerant bigotry which fometimes 
vexed his folitary retreat. In reviewing the controverfies 
of the times, he turned agair.d each other the arguments 
of the difputants ; fuccellively wielding the arms of the 
Catholics and Protedants, he proves, that neither the way 
of authority nor the way of examination can afford the 
multitude any ted of religious truth, and dexterouily 
concludes that cudom and education mud be the foie 
grounds of popular belief. The ancient paradox of Plu¬ 
tarch, that atheifm is lefs pernicious than (uperdition, ac¬ 
quires a tenfold vigour when it is adorned with the colours 
of his wit, and pointed with the acutenefs of his logic. 
His CriticafDiftionary is a vad repofitory of fafts and opi¬ 
nions, and he balances the falfe religions in his fceptical 
fcales, till the oppolite quantities (if I may ufe the lan¬ 
guage of Alggbra) annihilate each other. The wonder-- 
ful power which he fo boldly exercifed of affembling 
doubts and objcftions had tempted him jocofely fo.affume 
the title of the vitpiXrr/ipsTx. Zsvg, the cloud-compelling Jove ; 
and, in a converfation with the ingenious abbe (afterwards 
cardinal) de Polignac, he freely difclofed his univerfal 
pyrrhonifm : ‘ I am mod truly (faid Bayle) a Protedants 
for I piotejl indifferently agajnd all fydems and all fefts.” 
BAYLUR', a feaport town of Africa, in the kingdom 
o-f Abydinia, and province of Dancale, on the Red Sea, 
Lat. 13. 30. N. Ion. 59. 27. E. Ferro. 
BAY'LY (Lewis), an eminent Engliffi divine, born at' 
Caermarthen in Wales, And educated at Oxford. He was- 
prefented to the living of Evefliam in Worcefferfhire in 
1611, was afterwards appointed chaplain to king James,, 
and promoted to the fee of Bangor in 1616. He was au¬ 
thor of that popular work, “The Praftice of Piety,” 
which he dedicated to Charles prince of Wales. He died 
in 1632. 
BAYNES, a town of France,, in the department of 
the Calvados, and chief place of, a canton, in the didrift 
of Bayeux : three leagues and a quarter wed-fonth-wed efi 
Bayeux. 
B AYON', a town of France, in the department of the 
Meurte, and chief place' of a canton, in the didrift of 
Luneville, (Ituated on the Mofelle ; fourteen miles fonth 
of Nancy, and nineteen fonth wed of Luneville. 
BAYO'NA, a feaport town of Spain, in Galicia, fitu- 
ated in a fmall gulf, near the mouth of the'Min ho, with a 
convenient harbour; the fea near the coaft is furnidiecl 
with excellent fii'h,-and the land about is fertile, and wa¬ 
tered by a great number of fprings ; the place is (mall, 
but drong : three leagues fouth-wed of Vigo, and four 
north-wed of Tuy. Lat. 42.'>..5. N. Ion. 7. 55. E, Teneriff. 
Bayona Islands, two fmall iHands and fome rocks 
fo called, (ituated at the entrance of the Gulf of Bayona, 
they were anciently caled Injuta Drorum, or ‘The Kies of 
the Gods two leagues north-north-wed of Bayona. 
BAY'ONET,yi [ bayonetle , Fr.J A (hort broad dagger,, 
formerly with a round handle fitted for the bore of a fire¬ 
lock, to be fixed there after the foidier had fired ; but 
they are now made with iron handles and rings, that go 
over the muzzle of the firelock, and are ferewed fad, 1 0 
that the foidier fires with his bayonet on the muzzle of his 
piece, and is ready to aft againd the horfe. This ufe of 
the bayonet faftened on the muzzle of the firelock was a 
great improvement, fird introduced by the French, A, D. 
1693 ; and to which, according to M, Folard, they owed 
a great part of their viftorie^ in the lad century ; and ro 
the negledt of this in the next fucceeding war, and trud- 
ing to their fire, the fame author attributes mod of the 
9 Z lodes 
