pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BEHRENDT, a circle in the Prussian government of Dantzic and province of West Prussia. It extends over 500 square miles, or 320,000 acres, and contains two towns and sixty-four villages. It is filled with extensive woods and large fresh-water lakes, and scarcely yields food sufficient for its thin population. The capital is of the same name, with 155 houses and 1146 inhabitants. Long. 17 53. 50. E. Lat. 54. 7. 12. N.
BEINASCHI, Giovanni Battista, called Cavalier Beinaschi, an historical painter, and a Piedmontese, was born in 1634. He studied at Rome under the direction of Pietro del Po; and some authors affirm that he was afterwards the disciple of Lan franc. He was a good designer; and as a public acknowledgement of his merit, the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him.
BEIT el. Fakih, an unwalled town of Arabia, situated on a barren sandy plain, protected by a castle, in which the governor resides, against the predatory incursions of the Arabs. It carries on an extensive trade in coffee, which grows in the hills, distant thirty-six miles, and is carried to Mocha, the shipping port, and thence exported to Egypt, the East Indies, and to Europe. European houses have had residents in this place, and merchants resort to it from all quarters of the East. The Persians have a caravan which travels to Bussorah; the Turkish and Russian caravans join those of Smyrna; and the Barbary and African caravans join that of Cairo. The trade of Beit el Fakih is carried on solely by the caravans; and the coffee is either sold for specie or for such goods as are required for the use of the inhabitants. It is twenty-four miles E.S.E. of Loheia and Hodeida. Long. 43.23. E. Lat. 14. 32. N.
BEITH, a town and parish of Scotland, in the county of Ayr, and partly also in Renfrewshire. It carries on to a considerable extent the manufacture of bleached and coloured thread, ançl has also cotton manufactories. The population is 4050, of which the town contains 2560. It is eight miles north of Irvine.
BEIZA, or Beizath, in Hebrew antiquity, a word signifying an egg, and also a certain measure in use among the Jews. The beiza among the Persians was a gold coin, weighing forty drachmas. Hence they pretended that Philip of Macedon owed their king Darius a thousand bei-zaths or golden eggs as tribute-money; and that Alexander the Great refused to pay them, saying, the bird which laid these eggs had flown into the other world.
BEJA, a city of the province of Alentejo, in Portugal. It is surrounded with walls, is the see of a bishop, and contains about 9000 inhabitants, who are for the most part occupied in cultivation, and especially in breeding cattle. Long. 8. 1. W. Lat. 37. 55. N.
BEKES, a circle in the Austrian kingdom of Hungary. It extends over 1330 square miles, or 852,350 acres, and contains four towns, sixteen villages, and seventy-one feudal estates, with 94,600 inhabitants, chiefly Lutherans and Calvinists; there being only about 12,000 Catholics and 7100 Greeks. The soil is marshy and the climate moist, but rich and productive, especially in horned cattle. The manufactures are such as peasantry require, and are prepared by themselves. The chief place, which bears the same name, is at the junction of the White with the Black Koros. It contains a Catholic, Greek, and Reformed church, with 1600 houses and 12,500 inhabitants. Long. 20. 41. 37. E. Lat. 46. 46. 16. N.
BEKKER, Balthasar, a distinguished Dutch divine, born at Metselawier, in Friesland, in the year 1634, was the author of a work entitled Die Detooverde Wereld, or The World Bewdel∣xd i in which he attacked with equal boldness and ingenuity the received opinions in demonology, and exposed with irresistible force of reason the errors, absurdities, and impostures, which had been propagated [7:4:542]respecting spiritual agency. Bekker’s work raised a terrible clamour against the author, who was at length deposed from the office of the ministry for the freedom and boldness of his attacks on the supposed prerogatives of the powers of darkness. He died in 1698. For an account of this remarkable man, who so far outstripped the age, see the article Apparitions.
BEL, Matthias, was born in Hungary, and became a Lutheran minister at Presburg, and historiographer to the Emperor Charles VI. Among his works is a History of Hungary, which was so much admired that the emperor gave him letters of nobility; and notwithstanding his being a Lutheran, the pope, in 1736, sent him his picture and several large gold medals. He was a member of the Royal Society of London, and of the academies of Berlin and Petersburg; and died in 1749, in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

Bel, or Belus, the supreme god of the ancient Chal-daeans or Babylonians. He was the reputed founder of the Babylonian empire, and is supposed to be the Nimrod of Scripture, as well as identical with the Phoenician Baal. He had a temple erected to him in the city of Babylon, on the uppermost range of the famous tower of Babel, in which there were many statues of the god, including one of massive gold forty feet in height. This temple, with its riches, was in existence till the time of Xerxes; but the Persian monarch, on his return from his unfortunate expedition into Greece, demolished it, and carried off the immense wealth which it contained. It was the statue of this god which Nebuchadnezzar set up and dedicated in the plain of Dura, on his return from the Jewish war.

∕⅛l and the Dragon, the history of, an apocryphal book of Scripture. This book has always been rejected by the Jewish church, and it is not extant either in the Hebrew or in the Chaldaic language, nor indeed is there any proof that it ever was; and hence St Jerome calls it the Fable of Bel and the Dragon.
BELAY, a naval term signifying to fasten, by coiling or winding round a kevel or belay-pin.
BELBEIS, a considerable town of Egypt, on the frontier towards Syria. It was formerly considered the bulwark of the kingdom on that side, and was defended by very strong fortifications; but these were suffered to fall into decay till 1798, when Bonaparte ordered them to be put in repair. The population is not now supposed to exceed 5000. Belbeis is thirty-five miles north-east of Cairo.
BELEMNITE, a marine fossil, of frequent occurrence in the chalk of the south of England and the flint of the north of Ireland. It is generally of a cylindrical or conical form, one end terminating in a point; the other, when perfect, in a conical cavity. It varies in size from that of a goose-quill to twelve or fourteen inches in length, and one to two in breadth. Its composition, whether inclosed in limestone, flint, clay, or sandstone, is uniformly crystallized carbonate of lime, striated, and radiating to the circumference from a line which passes perpendicularly through the fossil. Though distinguished by naturalists into several species, its nature and functions are comparatively little known. By some it has been considered a portion of an animal; but to what species it belonged no conjecture can now be formed. The appellation of thunder-bolt has been vulgarly applied to it, probably from some fanciful analogy in point of form.
BELENYES, a town in the province of Farther Theis, in the Austrian kingdom of Hungary. It is the chief place of a small circle of the same name, and contains two churches for Greeks, one for Catholics, and one for Calvinists, with 5600 inhabitants. Long. 22. 13. 25. E. Lat. 46. 40. 11. N.
BELERIUM, in Ancient Geography, a promontory of the Dumnonii or Damnonii, the West Britons; now called the Lands End.
BELEZERO, a town of Russia, and capital of a province of the same name. It is situated on the south-eastern shore of the White Sea. Long. 36. 10. E. Lat. 61. 50. N.
BELFORD, a market-town in the ward of Bamborough and county of Durham, 325 miles from London, on the great road to Edinburgh. There is a well-frequented cornmarket on Tuesday. The inhabitants in 1801 were 902; in 1811, 931; and in 1821, 1208.
BELFRY, Belfredus, is a term used by military writers of the middle ages to signify a sort of tower erected by besiegers to overlook and command the place besieged. Belfry originally denoted a high tower, on which sentinels were placed to watch the avenues of a place, in order to prevent surprise, or to give notice of fires, by ringing a bell. The word belfry is compounded of the Teutonic Z>eZZ, and∕m<∕, “peace.” Belfry is also used for that part of a steeple wherein the bells are hung. This is sometimes called by old writers campanile, clocaria, and tristegum.
BELGARD, a circle in the Prussian province of Pomerania, extending over 386 square miles, and comprehending four towns and 105 villages, with 18,808 inhabitants. It is in a sandy district, containing many fresh-water lakes. The chief town, of the same name, stands on one of those lakes, near the rivers Persante and Leitznitz, and contains 2460 inhabitants.
BELGICA, a town ofthcUbii,in Gallia Belgica, mid-way between the rivers Rhine and Roer; now called Balchusen. Belgica Gallia, one of the three divisions of Gaul men-tioned[7:4:544] by Caesar, and bounded by the ocean on the north, the rivers Seine and Marne on the west, and the Rhine on the east. The southern boundary differed at different times. Augustus added to Gallia Belgica the Sequani and IIcl-vetii, who till then had formed part of Celtic Gaul. The Belgae arc described by Caesar as the bravest of the Gauls, because' untainted by the importation of foreign luxuries.
BELGINUM, a town of the Treviri, in Gallia Bclgica; now called Baldenau.
BELGIUM is distinguished from Belgica as a part from the whole. Caesar makes Belgium the country of the Bellovaci, and Hirtius adds the Atrebates. But as the Ambiani lay between the Bellovaci and Atrebates, they must also be added; and these three people constituted the proper and genuine Belgae, all the rest being adventitious or foreigners. Ancient Belgium included Beauvais, Amiens, and Artois. For modern Belgium see Netherlands.
BELGOROD, a circle in the Russian government of Kursk, which contains a population of 32,300 persons. The chief place is the city of the same name, on the river Do-ncz. It is the seat of an archbishop, and has considerable linen and other manufactures, five churches, 1695 houses, and about 9000 inhabitants. Long. 35.56. E. Lat. 50. 55. N.
BELGRADE, a famous town and fortress of European Turkey, in Servia, situated near the conflux of the Save and Danube. It is divided into four parts. First, the fortress, which stands on a steep eminence in the centre, and commands the Danube. It is inclosed with high walls, and possesses strong towers and a triple ditch, and is provided with mines and bomb-proof casemates. The principal mosque and the residence of the pasha of Scrvia are situated in this part of the town. Secondly, the water-side division, lying near to the junction of the two rivers, on the north side, likewise well defended by walls and ditches. Thirdly, the Rascian town (so called from its inhabitants), towards the west, and in the direction of the Save. And, fourthly, the Palanka, which encircles the fortress on the south and east. This important town has sustained many sieges, and repeatedly passed from the hands of the Austrians to those of the Turks. It was taken by Solyman the Turkish emperor in 1522, and retaken by the Austrians in 1688, but again lost in 1690. It remained in the hands of the Turks until 1717, when it was surrendered to Prince Eugene. The imperialists retained it until 1739, when the Turks invested and reduced it. Austria again took it in 1789, but it was restored at the peace of 1791. And, lastly, in the year 1806, the Servian insurgents succeeded in carrying it. The strength and importance of this place may be inferred from the above details. It is in many parts well built, and contains fourteen mosques. The inhabitants are about 20,000 in number, being for the most part composed of the families of Turkish Janissaries. Long. 20. 10. E. Lat. 44.43. N.
BELIAL, ⅛jr>⅛, a Hebrew word, which signifies a wicked worthless man, one who is resolved to endure no subjection. Thus the inhabitants of Gibeah, who abused the Levite’s wife, have the name of Belial given them; and Hophni and Phineas, the sons of the high priest Eli, are likewise called sons of Belial, on account of the crimes they had committed, and the unbecoming manner in which they bad behaved themselves in the temple of the Lord. Sometimes the name Belial is used to denote the devil. Thus St Paul says, “What concord hath Christ with Belial? From which it appears that, in the apostle’s time, the Jews, by this epithet, commonly understood the devil. Milton also speaks of “the sons of Belial,” meaning thereby the children of the devil.
BELIDOR, Bernard Forest de, a Catalonian engineer in the service of France, and member of the Academies of Sciences at Paris and Berlin, and of the Royal Society at London, was a celebrated mathematician, and author of a number of tracts, in which the science of mathematics is applied to military purposes. He died in 1765, aged seventy.
BELIEF, in a general sense, denotes a persuasion or assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition. In this sense, belief has no necessary relation to any particular kind of evidence. Thus we are said to believe our senses, to believe our reason, to believe a witness. But, in its more restricted and technical sense, belief, according to the schoolmen, denotes that kind of assent which is grounded on the authority or testimony of some person or persons asserting or attesting the truth of any matter whatsoever. In this sense, it stands opposed to knowledge and science. We do not say we believe that snow is white, or that ice is cold; but that we see and feel them to be so. That the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, or that all motion is naturally rectilinear, are not said to be things credible, but certain; and the comprehension of such truths is not belief in the ordinary sense in which it is used, but science. But when a thing propounded is neither apparent to the sense nor evident to the understanding; neither certainly to be collected from any obvious or necessary connection with the cause whence it proceeds, nor with the effects which it naturally produces, and yet appears true, not by manifestation, but by an attestation of the truth, moving us to assent, in virtue of testimony given to its reality; this is properly said to be credible, and assent to it is the proper notion of belief or faith.
BELIEVERS, an appellation given, towards the close of the first century, to those Christians who had been admitted into the church by baptism, and instructed in all the mysteries of religion. They were thus called in contradistinction to the catechumens, who had not been baptized, and were consequently debarred from the privileges of believers.
BELIN, a town in the circle of Leutmeritz, in the Austrian kingdom of Bohemia, on the river Bicla. It is celebrated for its mineral springs, the water of which resembles that of Selzer, and for its preparations from it of Epsom salts and magnesia. The vicinity is most abundantly furnished with fossil coal. The resident inhabitants are about 1700, besides numerous occasional visitors.
BELIO, in Ancient Geography, a river of Lusitania; otherwise called Limaeas, Limeas, Limias, and Lethe, or the river of oblivion; now El Lima, in Portugal.
BELISARIUS, general of the emperor Justinian’s army, who overthrew the Persians in the East, the Vandals in Africa, the Goths in Italy, and, in a degenerate age, renewed the victories and triumphs which had immortalized the glorious times of the republic. But notwithstanding all his exploits, this great commander was falsely accused of a conspiracy against the emperor’s life. The real conspirators had been detected and seized, with daggers hidden under their garments; and one of them died by his own hand, while the other was dragged from the sanctuary, to which he had fled for refuge. Pressed by remorse, or tempted by the hopes of safety, the latter accused two officers of the household of Belisarius; and torture forced them to declare that they had acted according to the secret instructions of their patron. But posterity will not hastily believe that a hero who in the vigour of life had disdained the fairest öfters of ambition and revenge, should stoop to the murder of his prince, whom he could not expect long to survive. His followers were impatient to fly; but flight must have been sup ported by rebellion, and he had lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before the council wit less of fear than of indignation; after forty years service, the emperor prejudged his case; and injustice was sanctι-fied by the presence and authority of the patriarch. 1 e [7:4:545]life of the venerable veteran was indeed spared; but his fortunes were sequestrated, and for upwards of six months he was kept a close prisoner in his own palace. At length liis innocence was acknowledged, and his freedom and honours were restored; but death, which might have been hastened by grief and resentment, removed him from the world about eight months after his deliverance. That he was deprived of his sight, and reduced to beg charity in the streets, uttering the doleful solicitation of Date obolum Belisario, “ give a penny to Belisarius,” is a fiction of later times, which has obtained credit as a supposed instance of extreme vicissitude of fortune. This idle fable seems to have been derived from a work of the twelfth century, entitled the Chiliads, by John Tzetzes, a monk, who relates the blindness and beggary of Belisarius in ten doggerel verses (Chiliad iii. No. 88, 339-348, in Corp. Poet. Grace. tom. ii. p. 311), which are unworthy of quotation. The tale seems to have been imported into Italy with the language and manuscripts of Greece; repeated before the end of the fifteenth century by Crinitus, Pontanus, and Volaterranus; attacked by Alciatus for the honour of the law, and defended by Baronius for the honour of the church. Yet Tzetzes, the father of the fabrication, had confessedly read in the chronicles, that Belisarius did not lose his sight, and that he recovered his fortune and his fame.
BELLA, Stefano de la, an eminent engraver, was born at Florence a. d. 1610. His father was a goldsmith, and he himself began to work at his father’s business. But whilst he was learning to draw, in order to perfect himself in that profession, there fell by accident into his hands some of the prints of Callot, with which he was so delighted, that he prevailed upon his father to permit him to apply himself to engraving; and he became the disciple of Canta Gallina, who had also been the instructor of Callot. De la Bella at first imitated the manner of Callot. But his abilities soon began to manifest themselves; and as he acquired by degrees a facility in the handling of the burin, he quitted the style in which he only shone as an imitator, and adopted one entirely his own, which in freedom and spirit is said even to have surpassed that of his fellow-disciple. In 1642 he went to Paris, where Cardinal Richelieu engaged him to go to Arras, and make drawings of the siege and taking of that town by the royal army. He also went to Holland, where, it is reported, he saw some of the prints of Rembrandt Gerretsz, and attempted to imitate them; but finding he did not succeed to his expectation, he dropped that design, and continued to pursue his own manner, as more suitable to his genius. After residing a considerable time at Paris, his family affairs obliged him to return to Florence, where he obtained a pension from the grand duke, and was appointed to instruct the prince Cosmo his son in the art of design. But being subject to violent pains in the head, his life was rendered miserable, and at last terminated, by this cruel disorder, which carried him off in the year 1664, at the age of fifty-four.
BELLAC, an arrondissement in the department of the Upper Vienne, in France, extending over 780 square miles, and comprehending nine cantons and seventy-nine communes, with 76,150 inhabitants. The chief place, of the same name, is situated on the river Vincou, and inhabited by 3291 persons.
BELLAGIO, a town of the Austrian kingdom of Lombardy, in the delegation of Como, at the point where the lake of Como is separated from the lake of Lecco. It is well built, and surrounded by most picturesque scenery.
BELLAI, William du, lord of Langey, a French general, who signalized himself in the service of Francis I. He was also an able negociator, so that the emperor Charles V. used to observe, that “Langey’s pen had fought more against him than all the lances in France.” He was [7:4:548]sent to Piedmont in quality of viceroy, where he took several towns from the imperialists. His address in pene- "trating into the enemy’s designs was surprising. In this he spared no expense, and often obtained intelligence of the most secret counsels of the emperor and his generals. He was extremely active in influencing some of the universities of France to give a judgment agreeable to the .desires of Henry VIII. king of England, when this prince wished to divorce his queen in order to marry Anne Boleyn. It was then the interest of France to favour the king of England in this particular, it being an affront to the emperor, and a gratification to Henry, which might serve to form a strict alliance between him and Francis I. Langey was also a man of learning, and composed several works, the most remarkable of which was, the History of his Own Times, in Latin, divided into ogdoades, or parts, each consisting of eight books. While Langey was in Piedmont in 1542 he received some remarkable intelligence which he was desirous tQ communicate personally to the king, and being very infirm, he ordered a litter for his conveyance; but after passing the Rhone, near Lyons, he became so extremely ill, that he was obliged to stop at a small town, where he died on the 9th of January 1543. He was buried in the church of Mans, and a noble monument was erected to his memory.
BELLANO, a town of the Austrian kingdom of Lombardy, in the delegation of Como. It is situated at the end of the vale where the Poverna forms a most magnificent cataract, on the eastern side of the lake of Como, and is a place of considerable trade, with many country seats in the vicinity
BELLARMIN, Robert, an Italian Jesuit, one of the most expert polemical writers of his time. In 1576 he read lectures at Rome on controversies, with such applause, that Sixtus V. sending a legate into France in 1590, appointed him divine to the legation, in case any dispute in religion should happen to be discussed. Bellarmin returned to Rome, and was raised successively to different offices, till at last, in 1599, he was honoured with a cardinal’s hat; to force him to accept of which dignity, it is said, they were obliged to have recourse to the threat of an anathema. It is certain that no Jesuit ever did greater honour to his order, and that no author ever defended the cause of the Romish church in general, and that of the pope in particular, with greater ingenuity and skill. The Protestants have owned this sufficiently; for, during the space of fifty years, there was scarcely any considerable divine among them who did not fix upon Bellarmin as the subject of his books of controversy. But notwithstanding the zeal with which this Jesuit maintained the power of the pope over the temporality of kings, he displeased Sixtus V. in his work De Pornano Pontifice, by not insisting that the power which Jesus Christ gave to his vicegerent was direct, instead of indirect; and he had the mortification to see it put into the index of the inquisition, though it was afterwards removed. At his death he left to the Virgin Mary one half of his soul, and to Jesus Christ the other. Bellarmin is said to have been a man of great chastity and temperance, and remarkable for his patience. His stature was low, and his mien very indifferent; but the excellence of his genius might be discovered from die traces of his countenance. He expressed himself with great perspicuity; and the words which he first made use of to explain his thoughts were generally so proper, that there appeared no erasure in his writings.