840 B E A 
to fome villages where probably no Europeans had ever 
been before, the women ran frightened and fcreaming a- 
way from them, as taking them to be devils, merely on 
account of the wkitenefs ot their complexion ! We can¬ 
not but obferve, however, that heaven is very good and 
merciful to mankind, even in making' us capable of all 
this variety of miftakes. If every perfon judged exactly 
right of beauty, every man that was in love in fuch a dil- 
tridt would be in love with the fame woman ; the fuperior 
beauty of each hamlet would be the objebi of the hate 
and malice of all the reft of her own fex in it, and the 
canfe of diffenfion and murders among all of the other. 
If this would hold in one town, it would hold for the 
fame reafon in every other town or d iff rift ; and of courfe 
there would be nothing more wanting than this univerfal 
right judgment of beauty, to render the whole world one 
continued fcene of blood and mifery. But, lince fancy has 
more to do witli beauty than judgment, there is an infinity 
of tallies, and conlequently an infinity of beauties ; for to 
the mind of the lover, fuppofed beauty is full as good as 
real. Every body may thus choofe out what happens to 
hit his own turn and tafte. This increales the extent of 
beauty vaftly, and makes it in a manner univerfal : for 
there are but few people in companion that are truly beau¬ 
tiful ; but every body may be beautiful in the imagination 
of fome one or other. Some may delight in a black fkin,^ 
and others in a white ; fome in a gentle natural rofmefs ot 
complexion, others in a high exalted artificial red ; fome 
nations in waifts difproportionably large, and other in 
waifts as difproportionably fmall. In Ihort, the mod op- 
pofite things may each be looked upon as beautiful in dif¬ 
ferent countries, or by different people in the fame coun¬ 
try ; and hence univerfal gratification and content may 
arife in the affairs of love. 
“ Beauty is no inheritance.” H. Ger. Ichocnhcit if kern 
erb-gut.h. Or, Sckoenheit verliehrt fell bald. ‘ Beauty is but 
a blolfom, and foon fades.’ The inftability of beauty ought 
to be a leflon to the fair fex, not to fix all their hopes and 
views on the power or fuccefs of that alone, as but too 
many do, but conftantly to endeavour at fuch other quali¬ 
ties as are more durable, and will Hand them in ffead, 
when their beauty is r.o more. 
Heavenly Beauty has been reprefented by an exceed¬ 
ing fine woman naked, Handing upright, with her hand 
reaching the clouds, and encompaffed with rays, holding 
in one hand a lily, and in the other a cceleftial globe. 
To Beauty, v. a. To adorn ; to beautify ; to embel- 
liffi : not in vfe. 
BtAUTY-SroT, f. [from beauty and fpot.'] A fpot 
placed to direct the eye to fomething elfe, or to heighten 
fome beauty ; a foil ; a patch.—The filthinefs of fwine 
makes them the beauty-fpot of the animal creation. Grew. 
BEAUVAIS', a city of France, and capital of tire de¬ 
partment of the Oife, fituated on the Therin. Before the 
revolution, it was the capital of the Beauvaifis, and the 
fee of a bilhop. It was befieged by the Englilh without 
iuccels in the year 1443 ; and by the duke of Burgundy, in 
1472, to as little purpofe, though at the head of 80,000 
men. In the latter liege, the women of Beauvais gave 
great proofs of their courage under the conduft of Jane 
de Hachett, whofe portrait is preferved in the Town- 
hotife; and in the memory of their brave defence, the wo¬ 
men walk firft in a proceffion, kept annually on the 10th 
of July. The cathedral is much admired; befides this 
this there are fix collegiate, and three pariffi, churches : 
feven polls fouth of Amiens, and nine north of Paris. Lat. 
49. 25. N. Ion. 19. 45. E. Ferro. 
BEAUVAPSIS, before the revolution, a fmall province 
of France, bordered on the north by Picardy, on the weft 
by Vexin-Nortnand, on the fouth by Vexin Franpois, and 
on the eaft by Senlis ; the country is fertile, and was one 
of the firft conquered by the French. Beauvais the capital. 
BEAUVAL', a town of France, in the department of 
the Somme, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Doulens: one league fouth of Doolens. 
EEC 
BEAUVIL'LE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Lot and Garonne, and chief place of a canton, ia 
the diftrift of Valence : three leagues and a half north of 
Valence, and four eaft-norlh-eaft of Agen. Lat. 44. 17. N. 
Ion. 18. 33- E. Ferro. 
BEAUVOIR', a town of France, in the department of 
Vendee, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Challans : two leagues and a half north-weft of Challans. 
Beauvoir, a town of France, in the department of 
the I fere, and diltri 61 of St. Marcehn : five leagues fouth- 
weft of Grenoble, and two eaft-fouth-eaft of St Marcelin. 
Beauvoir sur Niort, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the two Sevres, and chief place of a conton, 
in the diftrift of Niort: two leagues and a half S. of Niort. 
BEAUZAT', a town of France, in the department of 
the Rhone and Loire : one league and a half fouth.weft of 
Moniftrol. 
BEAUZE'E, a town of France, in the department of 
the Meufe, arid chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Verdun: three leagues fouth-fouth-eaft of Clermont'en 
Argonne, and four and a half fouth.fouth-weft of Verdun. 
BEBE, a town of Egypt : eight miles S. of Benifeuf. 
BEBENOW'A, a town of Poland, in the Palatinate of 
Braclaw : fourteen miles fouth-eaft of Braclaw. 
BE'BRE, a river of France, which runs into tire Loire, 
oppofite Bourbon Lancy. 
BEBRY'CIA, the ancient name of Bithynia, fo called 
from the Bebryces its inhabitants. The Bebryces were 
afterwards driven out by the Thracians, viz. the Bithyni 
and Thyni; from whom, in procefs of time, the country 
took the name of Bithynia. 
BEBRY'CIANS, a people who left Thrace to fettle in 
Bithynia; under pretence of giving fports and diverfions 
to the public, they drew the people into a foreft, and maf- 
facred them in a horrible manner. Amycus, their king, 
was ftain by Pollux and the Argonauts, whom they endea¬ 
voured to draw into a fnare. Strabo. 
BEC (Le), a town of France, in the department of the 
the Eure : nine leagues weft-foutb-weft of Rouen. 
Bec Crespin, a town of France, in the department 
of the Lower Seine : three leagues eaft from Havre. 
BECABUN'GA,y. in botany. See Veronica. 
BECAFI'CO,y. [ becafigo , Span,] A bird like a night¬ 
ingale, feeding on figs and grapes ; a fig-pecker ; 
The robin red-breaft, rill of late, had reft, 
And children facred held a martin’s neft; 
Till bccajicos fold fo dev’lifh dear. 
To one that was, or would have>-been, a peer. Pope. 
BE'CAH, or BrKAH,y A Jewifli coin, being half a 
fhekel. In Dr. Arbuthnot’s table of reductions, the be- 
kah amounts to 13-J+d. in Dr. Prideaux’s computation to 
is. 6d. Every Itraelite paid an hundred bekahs a head 
annually for the fupport of the temple. 
To BEC AL'M, v. a. [from calm. ] To ftill the elements. 
To keep a fiiip from motion.—A man becalmed at fea, out 
of fight of land, in a fair day, may look on the fun, or fea, 
or fhip, a whole hour, and perceive no motion. Locke. — 
To quiet the mind : 
Soft whifp’ring airs, and the lark’s mattin fong, 
Then woo to muling, and becalm. the mind 
Perplex’d with irkfome thoughts. Philips. 
To Becai.m and to calm differ in this, that to calm is to 
flop motion, and to becalm is to with-hold from motion. 
BECA'ME. The preterite of Become ; which fee. 
BECAU'SE, cunjuncl. [from by and caufe .] For this 
reafon that; on this account that ; for this caufe that. It 
makes the firft part of an illative propofition, either ex- 
prefsly or by implication, and isaniwered by therefore ; as, 
I fed becaufe / was afraid ; which is the fame with, be- 
cavfe I was afraid, therefore I fled. It has, in fome fort, 
the force of a prepoftion ; but, becaufe it is compounded 
of a noun, has yafter it.—Infancy demands aliment, fuch 
as lengthens fibres without breaking, becaufe of the ftate of 
accretion. Aibutknot. 
BEC'CA 
