inquiry into the sources or operating causes of this efficacious attribute of our active nature. What are the influences that determine us to adopt some notions as grounds of action and elements of hope or depression, in preference to others? The common answer to this question is the possession of evidence, of which two kinds are reckoned by some schools -namely, experience and intuition; while others recognise experience alone, and reject the intuitive as a sufficient foundation of belief.

As regards the actual sources of men's convictions, it is undeniable that many things are credited without any reference to experience. The existence of superstitions is an example. So the partialities arising out of our likings to particular persons, and the undue depreciation of the merits of those whom we dislike, present instances equally removed from the criterion of experience. It is evident, therefore, that men do not abide by that criterion, even granting that they ought to do so. Accordingly, it is one of the tasks of the mental philosopher to specify the portions of our constitution that give birth to false, mistaken, or unfounded beliefs; and in so doing he indicates, first, certain intuitive impulses connected with our active nature; and secondly, our various feelings, or emotions. Whether the intuitive be a source of authentic beliefs, may be a matter of doubt; there is no doubt as to its being a genuine source of real convictions. We have a decided tendency from the first to believe that the present state of things will continue, and that the absent resembles the present. He that has always seen water liquid, cannot at first be convinced that it is ever or anywhere solid. We have always a great difficulty in surmounting the primitive impulse to consider other men's minds as exactly like our own. It is the tendency of the uncultured human being to overgeneralise; and experience comes as a corrective, often very painful to submit to. Then, again, as regards the emotions, it is found that every one of these, if at all strong, is liable to blind us to the realities of the world. Fear is a notable example. Under a fright, a man will believe in the approach of the direst calamities. Superstition is, for the most part, the offspring of men's fears. The effect of a strong emotion is to exclude from the mind every fact or consideration except those in keeping with itself. Intense vanity so lords it over the current of the thoughts and the course of the observations, as to present to one's mind only the very best side of the character. A fit of self-abasement and remorse will work the contrary effect.

beyond experience; such is the metaphysical doctrine of the infinite. These various convictions-d priori, as they are called, being grounded solely in the internal impulses of the human mind—are all open to one common remark. It must be conceded that some intuitive beliefs are unsound, seeing that we are obliged to reject a greater or less number because of their being flatly contradicted by our experience. But if any have to be rejected in this way, why may not all be; and what criterion, apart from experience, can be set up for discriminating those that we are to retain ? Man undoubtedly has boundless longings; and the doctrine of the infinite corresponds in a manner to these. But in actual life we find very few of our desires fully gratified, not even those most honourable to the human mind, such as curiosity, the passion for self-improvement, and the desire of doing good. How, then, are we to ascertain which of the longings carries with it its own necessary fulfilment? Moreover, the intuitive tendencies are exceedingly various in men; and all cannot be equally true.

Testimony, which is properly reckoned one of the sources of belief, is, in its operation, partly founded on an intuitive tendency, and partly on experience. We at first believe whatever we are told; the primitive phase of our nature is credulity; the experience that we soon attain to of untrue statements puts us on our guard, and we learn to receive testimony under some circumstances, and from some persons, and not in all cases indiscriminately.

3. Responsibility for Belief.-A lengthened controversy arose some time ago, on the saying of Lord Brougham, that man is no longer accountable to man for his belief, over which he has himself no control.' Reduced to precise terms, the meaning of this assertion is: a man's belief being involuntary, he is not punishable for it. The question therefore arises, how far is belief a voluntary function? for it is known that the will does to some extent influence it.

What a man shall see when he opens his eyes is not in his own power; but the opening of the eyes is a voluntary act. So, after listening to a train of arguments on a certain dispute, we might be irresistibly inclined to one side; but, supposing us to live in a country where the adhesion to that side is criminal, and punished severely, we should very likely be deterred from hearing or reading anything in its favour. To this extent, the adoption of a belief is voluntary. The application of strong Imotives of the nature of reward or punishment is sufficient to cause one creed to prevail rather than another, as we see in those countries and in those ages where there has been no toleration of dissent from the established religion. The mass of the people have been in this way so fenced in from knowing any other opinions, that they have become conscientiously attached to the creed of their education.

creeds, on which the majority of mankind, being insufficient judges of themselves, are led by tradition and by education. But in matters of daily practice, where the simplest can judge as well as the wisest, the case is altered. No severity of threat could bring a man into the state of believing that his night's rest was hurtful to him; he might be overawed into saying that it was so, but he would never act out his forced affirmation, and therefore he would shew that he did not believe it.

If the sentence of Lord Brougham is held to imply that all beliefs are beyond the power of external

Will.

BELISA'RIUS (in Slavonic, Beli-tzar, 'White Prince'). This heroic and loyal soldier, to whom the Emperor Justinian was principally indebted for the glory of his reign, was born at Germania, in Illyria, about 505 A. D. He first assumed a conspicuous position when he was appointed to the command of the eastern army of the empire, stationed on the confines of Persia, where, in 530 A. D., he gained a victory over a Persian army nearly twice as large as his own. The historian Procopius was at this time secretary to Belisarius. In the following year, when the Persians had penetrated into Syria, intending to attack Antioch, B. being compelled by the impatience of his troops to offer battle at Callinicum, a town at the junction of the rivers Bilecha and Euphrates, was defeated, and in consequence recalled. This petulant injustice, however, did not weaken that principle of duty which ever controlled and inspired the great soldier. He still remained the firm supporter of his sovereign. In Constantinople, the strife of the two parties, styled respectively the green' and 'the blue,' had endangered the authority and even the life of Justinian; already a new emperor, Hypatius, had been elected, when B., at the head of the life-guards, attacked and slew, in the race-course, 30,000 of the green or anti-loyalist party, and thus restored tranquillity. Previous to this, he had married a wealthy but profligate lady, Antonina, whom he loved with the same blind uxoriousness that Marcus Aurelius exhibited towards Faustina. The only points in his history which are not edifying, are those in which he yielded to her noxious solicitations. The military career of B. may be divided into two great epochs: the war against the Vandals in Africa, and the war against the Goths in Italy, which again subdivides itself into two campaigns, with an interval of four years between them. The first of these epochs was commenced by Justinian sending B., in 533 A. D., with an army of 15,000 men into Africa, in order to recover the provinces there held by the Vandal king, Gelimer. After achieving two victories, B. made the king a prisoner, seized his treasures, and after conquering Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Isles, he brought him to Constantinople, where he appeared in a triumphal procession of the conqueror-the first that a subject had enjoyed since the days of Tiberius. The African Vandals never recovered from this overthrow. Medals were struck in B.'s honour; and on the 1st January 535, he was invested with the dignity of 'consul,' and granted a second triumph, according to the old republican style. The second war was occasioned by the divisions existing in the royal family of the Ostrogoths, which induced Justinian to attempt to wrest Italy from the hands of the barbarians. In 535, B. conquered Sicily; and in the autumn of 536, he crossed over to Lower Italy, where all the cities submitted to him except Naples, which he carried by storm. On the 10th of December, he entered Rome, having made an amicable arrangement with

the inhabitants. As he found his forces not strong enough to contend with the Goths in open field, he allowed himself to be enclosed and besieged in Rome: after the defence had lasted a year, the Goths raised the siege. In 538, Narses had been sent with a reinforcement for the army in Italy; but some misunderstanding occurring between the two generals, they were prevented from relieving Milan, which in 539 was carried and devastated by Braias, nephew of the Gothic king, Vitiges. Consequently, Narses was recalled from Italy; and B., now placed at the head of both armies, refused to assent to a treaty proposed to King Vitiges by Justinian's ambassadors. Vitiges had persuaded the Persian king, Chosroes, to invade the eastern Roman territory. B. now drove the Goths back to Ravenna, which he captured in 540, along with Vitiges himself. But before he could complete his conquest of the Goths, he was recalled by Justinian to Constantinople, where he soon appeared, bringing with him the king Vitiges, several Gothic chieftains, and the royal treasures. In 541–542, he was engaged in a campaign against the Persians, who had captured Antioch; but was again recalled, on account of slanderous representations made to the emperor, and the enterprise necessarily proved indecisive. His second great struggle with the Ostrogoths now begins. In 544, the barbarians, under Totila, again invaded and reconquered Italy. B. was sent against them, but with an insufficient army. He, however, maintained his ground for five years, harassing the enemy by his skilful movements, and even succeeded so far as to regain possession of Rome. But, in spite of his repeated entreaties, no reinforcements were sent to him; and in September 548, he gave up the command, his rival, Narses, being appointed in his place. After ten years of retirement, B. once more came forward at the head of an army hastily collected, and overthrew the Bulgarians, who had threatened Constantinople. Here this faithful servant, who at Ravenna had, in a spirit of noble loyalty unknown to the warriors in those selfish and ambitious times, refused the crown of Italy offered to him by the Goths, was at length accused of a conspiracy against Justinian, and imprisoned, December 563; but according to Malala and Theophanes, Justinian became convinced of B.'s innocence, and restored him, after six months, to all his honours. He died March 564.

The biography of B. has been treated with great licence by writers of fiction, especially by Marmontel, who has represented the hero as cruelly deprived of sight, and reduced to beg for his bread in the streets of Constantinople. Tzetzes, a writer of the 12th c., states that, during his half-year's imprisonment, B. suspended a bag from the window of his cell, and exclaimed to those who passed by: 'Give an obolus to B., who rose by merit, and was cast down by envy!' but no writer contemporary with B. mentions this circumstance. Lord Mahon, in his Life of Belisarius (Lond. 1829), endeavours, but without success, to confirm the tradition, or rather the fiction, of B. being deprived of sight and reduced to mendicancy. This fiction supplies the subject of a fine picture by the French painter

Gérard.

In figure, B. was tall and majestic; in disposition, humane and generous; pure in his morals, temperate in his habits, a valiant soldier, a skilful general, and above all, possessed by a sublime spirit of loyalty to his sovereign.

BELI'ZE. See BALIZE.

BELL. Bells are usually formed of a composition of copper and tin, called bell-metal. When the proper proportions of the two metals are fused together,

the compound is poured into a mould. Authorities differ as to the best proportions of the copper and tin. Some give 80 parts of copper to 20 of tin, or 4 to 1; others state the proportions as being 3 to 1. In the reign of Henry III. of England, it would seem to have been 2 to 1; and the small bronze bells discovered by Mr Layard in the palace of Nimroud, are found to contain 10 of copper to 1 of tin. Hand-bells are often made of brass, antimony alloyed with tin, German silver,

Queen Mary's silver-gilt Hand-bell.

real silver, and gold. The notion that in old times silver was mixed with bell-metal to sweeten the tone, is a mistake. Silver, in any quantity, would injure the tone. The quality of a bell depends not only on the composition of the metal it is made of, but very much also on its shape, and on the proportions between its height, width, and thickness; for which the bell-founder has rules derived from experience, and confirmed by science. The pitch of a bell is higher the smaller it is. For a peal of four bells to give the pure chord of ground tone (key-note), third, fifth, and octave, the diameters require to be as 30, 24, 20, 15, and the weights as 80, 41, 24, 10. A less quantity of metal than is due to the calibre of the bell though giving the same note, produces a meagre harsh sound; and the real or fancied superiority in dignity of tone of some old bells, is ascribed to a greater weight of metal having been allowed for the same note than modern economy would dictate. Bells have been cast of steel, some of which have had a tone nearly equal in fineness to that of the best bell-metal, but deficient in length, having less vibration. Some have also been cast of glass, with a considerable thickness of the material; and these give an extremely fine sound, but are too brittle to stand the continued use of a clapper.

From a remote antiquity, cymbals and handbells were used in religious ceremonies. In Egypt, it is certain that the feast of Osiris was announced by ringing bells; Aaron, and other Jewish highpriests, wore golden bells attached to their vestments; and in Athens, the priests of Cybele used bells in their rites. The Greeks employed them (koda) in camps and garrison; and the Romans announced the hour of bathing and of business by the tintinnabulum. The introduction of bells into Christian churches is usually ascribed to Paulinus, Bishop of Nola in Campania (400 A. D.); but there is no evidence of their existence for a century later. That they were first made in Campania, is inferred from the name given to them-campana; hence campanile, the bell-tower. Their use in churches and monasteries soon spread through Christendom. They were introduced into France about 550; and

Benedict, Abbot of Wearmouth, brought one from Italy for his church about 680. Pope Sabinian (600) ordained that every hour should be announced by sound of bell, that the people might be warned of the approach of the hora canonica, or hours of devotion. Bells came into use in the East in the 9th c., and in Switzerland and Germany in the 11th. Most of the bells first used in Western Christendom seem to have been hand-bells. Several examples, some of them, it is believed, as old as the 6th c., are still preserved in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. They are made of thin plates of hammered iron, bent into a four-sided form, fastened with rivets, and brazed or bronzed. Perhaps the most remarkable is that which is said to have belonged to St Patrick, called the Clog-an-eadhachta Phatraic, or The bell of Patrick's Will.' It is 6 inches high, 5 inches broad, and 4 inches deep, and is kept in a case or shrine of brass, enriched with gems and with gold and silver filigree, and made (as an inscription in Irish shews) between the years 1091 and 1105. The bell itself is believed to be mentioned in the Annals of Ulster as early as the year 552. Engravings as well of the bell as of its shrine, with a history of both, by the Rev. Dr Reeves of Lusk, were published at Belfast (where the relic is preserved) in 1850. Some of the Scotch bells, of the same primitive type, are figured and described in the Illustrated Catalogue of the Archaeological Museum at Edinburgh in 1856 (Edin. 1859). The four-sided bell of St Gall, an Irish missionary, who died about 646, is still shewn

in the monastery of the city which bears his name in Switzerland. Church-bells were suspended either in the steeples or church-towers, or in special belltowers. They were long of comparatively small size: the bell which a king presented to the church of Orleans in the 11th c., and which was remarkable in its age, weighed only 2600 pounds. In the 13th c., much larger bells began to be cast, but it was not until the 15th c. that they reached really considerable dimensions. The bell 'Jacqueline' of Paris, cast in 1400, weighed 15,000 pounds; another Paris bell, cast in 1472, weighed 25,000; the famous bell of Rouen, cast in 1501, weighed 36,364 pounds. The largest bell in the world is the Great Bell or Monarch of Moscow, above 21 feet in height and diameter, and weighing 193 tons. It was cast in 1734, but fell down during a fire in 1737, was injured, and remained sunk in the earth till 1837, when it was raised, and now forms the dome of a chapel made by excavating the space below it. Another Moscow bell, cast in 1819, weighs 80 tons. The Great Bell at Pekin, 14 feet high, with a diameter of 13 feet, weighs 53 tons; those of Olmütz, Rouen, and Vienna, nearly 18 tons; that first cast for the New Palace at Westminster (but cracked),

14 tons; that of the Roman Catholic cathedral at Montreal (cast 1847), 13 tons; Great Peter,'

Great Bell at Moscow.

placed in York Minster 1845, 10 tons; Great Tom' at Lincoln, 5 tons; Great Bell of St Paul's, 5 tons-See an interesting article on Bells in the Quarterly Review for September 1854.

From old usage, bells are intimately connected with the services of the Christian church-so much so, that apparently from a spirit of opposition, the Mohammedans reject the use of bells, and substitute for them the cry of the Imaum from the top of the mosques. Associated in various ways with the ancient ritual of the church, bells acquired a kind of sacred character. They were founded with religious ceremonies (see Schiller's ode), and consecrated by a complete baptismal service; received names, had sponsors, were sprinkled with water, anointed, and finally covered with the white garment or chrisom, like infants. This usage is as old as the time of Alcuin, and is still practised in Roman Catholic countries. Bells had mostly pious inscriptions, often indicative of the wide-spread belief in the mysterious virtue of their sound. They were believed to disperse storms and pestilence, drive away enemies, extinguish fire, &c. A common inscription in the middle ages was:

Funera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata pango, Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos. Among the superstitious usages recorded to have taken place in old St Paul's Church in London, was the 'ringinge the hallowed belle in great tempestes or lightninges' (Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii.). From this superstition possibly sprang the later notion, that when the great bell of St Paul's tolled (which it does only on the death of a member of the royal family, or a distinguished personage in the city) it turned all the beer sour in the neighbourhood-a fancy facetiously referred to by Washington Irving in the SketchBook. It would seem that the strange notion that bells are efficacious in dispelling storms, is by no means extinct. In 1852, the Bishop of Malta ordered the church-bells to be rung for an hour to allay a gale.

Church-bells were at one time tolled for those passing out of the world. It was a prevailing superstition that bells had the power to terrify evil spirits, no less than to dispel storms; and the custom of ringing what was called the passing-bell, 'grew [we quote the writer in the Quarterly Review above referred to] out of the belief that devils troubled the expiring patient, and lay in wait to afflict the soul the moment when it escaped from

the body.'. ... The tolling of the passing-bell was retained at the Reformation; and the people were instructed that its use was to admonish the living, and excite them to pray for the dying.' But by the beginning of the 18th c., the passing-bell, in the proper sense of the term, had almost ceased to be heard. The tolling, indeed, continued in the old fashion; but it took place after the death, instead of before.' The practice of slowly and solemnly tolling church-bells at deaths, or while funerals are being conducted, is still a usage in various parts of the country, more particularly as a mark of respect for the deceased. There is another use of the bell in religion, called the pardon or ave bell, abolished among Protestants. The pardon-bell was tolled before and after divine service, for some time prior to the Reformation, to call the worshippers to a preparatory prayer to the Virgin Mary before engaging in the solemnity, and an invocation for pardon at its close. Bishop Burnet has recorded the order of a Bishop of Sarum, in 1538, concerning the discontinuance of the custom. It runs thus: "That the bell called the pardon or ave bell, which of longe tyme hathe been used to be tolled three tymes after and before divine service, be not hereafter in any part of my diocesse any more tollyd.'

The ringing of the curfew-bell, supposed to have been introduced into England by William the Conqueror, was a custom of a civil or political nature, and only strictly observed till the end of the reign of William Rufus. Its object was to warn the public to extinguish their fires and lights at eight o'clock in the evening. The eight o'clock ringing is still continued in many parts of England and Scotland. As the liberty of public worship in places of meeting by themselves was yielded to dissenters, by the various governments of Europe, only with reluctance, the use of bells in chapels as a summons to divine service is not allowed except in the more enlightened countries. Speaking on this subject as referring to England, Lord Chief-justice Jervis, in giving judgment on a case tried at the Croydon assizes in 1851, says: With regard to the right of using bells in places of worship at all, by the common law, churches of every denomination have a full right to use bells, and it is a vulgar error to suppose that there is any distinction at the present time in this respect.' Throughout England and Scotland, however, comparatively few dissenting places of worship possess bells-still fewer have steeples. In towns and villages, the places of worship connected with the established church are commonly distinguished by some kind of belfry or bell-cote with bells. The ringing of these for divine service on Sundays, and on other occasions, forms the theme of many poetical allusions. The lines of Cowper will occur to recollection :

How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at interval, upon the ear,
In cadence sweet! now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on.

On all that belongs to the playing of bells in belfries, the inventive genius of the Netherlands long since arrived at proficiency. In some of the church-towers of that country, the striking, chiming, and playing of bells is incessant; the tinkling called chimes usually accompanies the striking of the hours, half-hours, and quarters; while the playing of tunes comes in as a special divertisement. In some instances, these tuneplaying bells are sounded by means of a cylinder, on the principle of a barrel-organ; but in others, they are played with keys by a musician. The French apply the term carillons to the tunes played