the crime of defamation. Now, as blasphemy is, in its essence, the same crime, but immensely aggravated by being committed against an object infinitely superior to man, what is fundamental to the very existence of the crime will be found in this, as in every other species which comes under the general name. There can be no blasphemy, therefore, where there is not an impious purpose to derogate from the Divine Majesty, and to alienate the minds of others from the love and reverence of God.'-Preliminary Dissertation, prefixed to his Gospels, 8vo. vol. i. p. 448. It has been a matter of considerable discussion in modern times, how far a crime, in its nature so difficult properly to define-in its strict sense, perhaps, so rarely committed-and the decision upon which it seems so unjust to place in the hands of any one religions party, should remain at all a matter for prosecution by the laws of a civilised state. On the one hand it is contended, that, as Christianity is a part and portion of the law in every country maintaining an established religion, it seems to be involved with the just defence of that religion that blasphemy should be punished; that it is immoral; and that contumely of the Deity, or even of the books of inspiration, ought not to be diffused among the unthinking and the young.

To this it is replied, 'Deorum injuriæ diis curæ,' though calumny and slander, when affecting our fellow men, are punishable by law; for this plain reason, because an injury is done and a damage sustained, and a reparation therefore due to the injured party; yet, this reason cannot hold where God and the Redeemer are concerned, who can sustain no injury from low malice and scurrilous invective; nor can any reparation be made to them by temporal penalties; for these can work no conviction or repentance in the mind of the offender; and, if he continue impenitent and incorrigible, he will receive his cordign punishment in the day of final retribution.' See Furneaur's Letters to Blackstone. Second ed. pp. 70, 71.

:

The punishment of constructive blasphemy by law seems still more open to abuse; for, as the above able writer observes, laws for the punishment of blasphemy may be easily turned to the destruction of all religious liberty for what is blasphemy, in the general sense of the term, but uttering something dishonorable or injurious to the Divine Being? And what controverted religious sentiment is there, which under this general notion, by a court and jury of bigots, may not be condemned as blasphemy? The Athenasian styles the Arian a blasphemer, the Arian the Athanasian; the Calvinist the Arminian, the Arminian the Calvinist and thus the same laws, differently applied as different parties prevail, will prove fatal to the religious liberty of all of them in their turn.'

BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. Divines are not agreed with respect to the nature of the sin thus denominated (Matt. xii. 31.), and the grounds of the extreme guilt ascribed to it. Tillotson maintains, that it consisted in maliciously attributing the miraculous operations which Christ performed by the power of the Holy Ghost to the devil. Dr. Whitby refers it to

the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, which com menced after our Lord's resurrection and ascension; and those, he says, were guilty of the crime who persisted in their unbelief and blasphemed the Holy Ghost, representing him as an evil spirit. The crime was unpardonable, because it implied a wilful opposition to the last and most powerful evidence which God would vouchsafe mankind, and precluded the possibility, by rejecting the means, of recovery. In this sentiment Dr. Doddridge coincides. Bishop Pearce's remarks here are excellent. Under the Jewish law there was no forgiveness for wilful and presumptuous sins: concerning them it it is said in Numb. xv. 30, 31, 'The soul which doeth ought presumptuously, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among the people, because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandments.' See, to the same purpose, Numb. xxxv. 31. Lev. xx. 10. and 1 Sam. ii. 25. With regard to the seculum futurum, the age to come, or the Christian dispensation, no forgiveness could be expected for such sinners as these Pharisees were; because when they blasphemed the Holy Spirit of God, by which Jesus wrought his miracles, they rejected the only means of forgiveness, which was the merit of his death applied to men by faith, and which, under Christianity, was the only sacrifice that could atone for such a sin: in this sense, as things then stood with them, their sin was an unpardonable But then it is not to be concluded from

one.

perspicillaris, Asiatica, schafferi, sylvestris, Pennsylvanica, livida, rufa, grisea, minutissima, aptera, punctulata, ocellata.

BLATTA, in middle age writers, denotes a purple in the wool or silk, dyed with the liquor of the fish of the blatta. It was also used, according to some, for the kermes; and, according to others, for the purple worm.

BLATTA BYZANTINA, in physiology and pharmacy, a testaceous body, being the operculum, or lid of a turbinated shell, whose fish yields a purple dye. In Dioscorides's time, the best was brought from the Red Sea, viz. the palest and the fattest; the blacker and less from Babylon, or the Persian Gulf; but in later times they took up with those found about Constantinople; whence the present blatta of the shops had its name. BLATTARIA, Tournefort's generic name for the verbascum of Linnæus. See VERBASCUM. BLATTARIÆ, from blatta, a moth or little worm; the title of Scopoli's twelfth natural class, in his Flora Carniolica.

BLATTER, Lat. blatero, from blatio. BLATTERATION, Vossius derives it from BLATTER'OON. the Gr. Βλατον, for Βλητον, cast, thrown forth; to roar; to make a senseless noise; babbling; chattering; blabbing; bolting out any thing.

For before it (the tongue) she hath set a pallisado

of sharp teeth, to the end that if, peradventure, it will not obey reason, which within holdeth it hard, as if

with a strait bridle, but it will blatter out and not tarry within, we might bite it until it bled again, and so restrain the intemperance thereof.

Holland. Plutarch.

She rode at peace, through his only pains and excellent endurance, however envy list to blatter against him.

Spenser. Howell's Letters.

I hate such blateroons. BLATUM. See BLADUM. BLAU, a river of Germany, in the circle of Suabia.

BLAVET, a sea-port town of France, in the department of the Morbihan, and ci-devant province of Britanny, situated at the mouth of the river of that name. It was one of the stations of the royal_navy of France, and called Port Louis, after Louis XIV.

BLAVIA, or BLAVIUM, in ancient geography, a town of Aquitain, on the north bank of the Garonne, below its confluence with the Dordogne, now called Blaye.

BLAYE, an ancient and strong town of France, in the department of the Gironde, and late province of Guienne. It is situated on the Garonne, has a harbour much frequented by foreigners, and the ships which sail to Bourdeaux are obliged to leave their guns here. The river is 3800 feet broad at Blaye; for which reason a battery was built upon an island in 1689, to command the vessels that sail up. The city is built on a rock, and has a citadel with four bastions, which is called the Upper Town. The lower town is separated from the upper by a small river; and the merchants reside in it. The trade of Blaye consists chiefly in wines and brandy. The neighbourhood produces a great deal of corn, which is also sometimes exported.

It is twenty miles north of Bourdeaux. Population about 4000.

BLAYNEY (Benjamin), D. D., was educated at Oxford. He was originally of Worcester College, but quitted it in 1787, on obtaining a fellowship at Hertford College. He resigned the latter appointment for a canonry of Christ Church, with the professorship of Hebrew annexed. He also enjoyed the rectory of Polshot, Wilts, which he held at his death, which took place in 1801. He very ably superintended the common version of the English Bible printed at the Clarendon press, 4to. 1769, (see BIBLE), and published, 1. A Dissertation by Way of Enquiry into the true Import and Application of the Vision related by Dan. ix., &c. 4to, 1784. 2. Jeremiah and Lamentations, a New Translation, with Notes Critical, &c. 8vo. 1784. 3. Zechariah, a New Translation, with Notes Critical, &c.; to which is added a New Edition, with Alterations, of the Dissertation on Daniel, 4to. 1797. BLAZE', v. & n. BLA'ZEN, BLA'ZING, BLA'ZURE.

Ang.-Sax. blæsan, to blow; Germ. blasen; Dutch, blæesan; to emit a flame, like a blast; a flame; blaze implies more the light than the heat; diffusion of light suddenly, widely, rapidly; metaphorically, applied to a rapid and wide diffusion in proper terms; to any thing set forth conspiof a report; to an account of ensigns armorial cuously; ostentatiously.

But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter.

This lady brought in her right hond
Of brenning fire a blazing brond,—
Whereof the flame and hote fire

Mark.

Chaucer.

Spenser.

Utterers of secrets he from thence debarred, Babblers of folly, and blazers of crime.

And eke you virgins that on Parnasse dwell, Whence floweth Helicon, the learned well, Help me to blaze Her worthy praise, Which in her sexe doth all excell.

Id.

I cannot tell you what was this knightes name, nor of what countre, but the blasure of his armes was goules, two fusses, sable, a border sable.

Froissart. Cronycle. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Shakspeare.

The main blaze of it is past; but a small thing would make it flame again. Id. Coriolanus.

Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light, A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. Dryden. What groans of men shall fill the martial field! How fierce a blaze his flaming pile shall yield! What funeral pomp shall floating Tiber see!

Id.

Thus you may long live an happy instrument for your king and country; you shall not be a meteor, or a blazing star, but stella fixa; happy here, and more happy hereafter.

Bacon.

The noise of this fight, and issue thereof, being

blazed by the country people to some noblemen there

abouts, they came thither.

Such musick worthiest were to blaze

The peerless height of her immortal praise,
Whose lustre leads us.

For what is glory but the blaze of fame,
The people's praise, if always praise unmixt?

Sidney.

Milton.

But, mortals, know, 'tis still our greatest pride To blaze those virtues which the good would hide.

Pope. Id.

Then glossy smooth lay all the liquid plain. This, in ancient times, was called a fierce; and you should then have blazed it thus: he bears a fierce sable between two fierces, or. Peacham.

Those hearts that start at once into a blaze, And open all their rage like summer storms At once, discharged, grow cool again and calm. C. Johnson's Medea. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's he heat is more regular and constant. Johnson.

Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run,
Along Morea's hills the setting sun;

Not as in northern climes obscurely bright,
But one unclouded blaze of living light!

O'er the hush'd deep the yellow beam he throws,
Gilds the green wave that trembles as it glows.
Byron's Corsair.
BLAZEY BAY, a bay of the English channel,
on the south-west coast of the county of Corn-
wall, between Fowey and Deadman Point.
BLAZ'ON, n. & v. Fr. blasonner; general
BLAZON'ER,
applications the same as
BLAZON'RY.
blaze; to blaze and to
blazon are the same, only that the latter is more
exclusively applied to the figures on ensigns ar-

morial.

Proceed unto beasts that are given in arms, and teach me what I ought to observe in their blazon.

Peacham. Give certain rules as to the principles of blazonry. Id. on Drawing.

King Edward gave to them the coat of arms, which I am not herald enough to blazon into English. Addison.

BLAZON, a market town of Austrian Galicia, circle of Zolkien, with a Catholic and a Greek church. There is also a village of this name in the circle.

BLAZONING, OF BLAZONRY, in heraldry, the decyphering the arms of noble families. The word originally signified the blowing or winding of a horn; and was introduced into heraldry as a term denoting the description of things borne in arms, with their proper significations and intendments, from an ancient custom the heralds, who were judges, had of winding a horn at justs and tournaments, when they explained and recorded the achievements of knights. See HE

Shakspeare.

When turtles tread, and rooks and daws; And maidens bleach their summer smocks. Shakspeare. The white sheet bleaching in the open field. For there are various penances enjoined; And some are hung to bleach upon the wind; Some plunged in waters.

Id.

Id.

And Turner, gay, up to his perch to march, With face new bleached, smoothed, and stift with starch. Marvell.

One that excels the quirk of blazoning pens, And in the essential vesture of creation, Does bear all excellency.

What is this but libelling against the senate, And blazoning our injustice everywhere?

But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood.

Id.

I am a gentleman.-I'll be sworn thou art; Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, action, and spirit, Do give thee five-fold blazon.

Id.

Albeit unworthy of the prey-bird's maw, Let their bleached bones, and blood, unbleaching stain, Long mark the battle-field, with hideous awe. Byron.

BLEACHING is the art of discharging from cotton, linen, woollen, and other goods, their naturally dark tinge, and rendering them white. It is an art which has attended the very dawn of civilisation in all parts of the globe. In Egypt, India, and Syria, the efficacy of natron, the nitre of Scripture, in this process, was evidently known from a remote period; (Jer. ii. 22,) and Pliny states (lib. xviii. c. 51), that the ancient Gauls were well acquainted with the use of a lixivium made from the ashes of burnt vegetables, as a detergent, and knew how to combine it with animal oil, so as to form a powerful soap. That in the eastern parts of the world this art, like almost every other, should have remained stationary for ages, will not occasion surprise; but that, in enlightened Europe, a process so important should have been altogether neglected by men of science, until within a very recent period, seems astonishing. Such, however, is the fact. Until towards the close of the last century

it had made little or no advances; and to Messrs. Scheele and Berthollet, foreign chemists (particularly to the latter) is to be awarded the honor of effecting a peaceful but entire revolution in this ingenious art.

This is not now, therefore, the practice of wetting cloths on the field, and trusting, with the uncivilised Indian, to the sun and air, to accomplish the whiteness of them; but a process essentially chemical, and calling into operation some of the most splendid, because useful discoveries, of a Thenard, a Watt, and a Davy. As the old process is far from being entirely exploded, however, in remoter parts of this country, and because it will assist the reader in appreciating the march of science upon this subject, we shall treat in this paper, I. Of the old plan of bleaching. II. Of the chemical substances now employed in that art. III. Of the machinery used. And, IV. Of the principal improvements in the modern mode of bleaching.

I. OF THE OLD PLAN OF BLEACHING.

There are many materials which it is necessary to bleach previously to their being manufactured, and especially those of the more delicate kind, as silk for example, since they would not be able to endure the violence of several of the processes, without injury to the tender woof. Such processes, however, do no injury to the strong texture of linen or hempen cloths, and hence they are uniformly woven before they are committed to the bleacher's hands.

the rest.

Let us, however, follow up these materials from their simplest and rudest state. If ripe flax be examined, it will be found to be composed of fibres or filaments united together by the sap, enveloping a semiligneous substance, and covered with a thin bark. It is the fibrous part only that is used for making cloth, and it must therefore he previously separated from the other matters. The sap or succulent part is composed of extractive principle and water, and the first process is to separate this substance, which holds the filaments together. As soon as the flax is pulled, it is steeped in soft water until the putrefactive fermentation takes place. This degree of fermentation begins with the succulent part, as being more susceptible of decomposition than Were the flax to be continued long in this state the whole substance of it would be decomposed or destroyed, upon the same principle that malt is injured by too long steeping, or that wort loses its substance by too long a fermentation. It must therefore be taken out of the water while yet green, and before the whole of its sap is separated. Well water and brackish water must be carefully avoided, as also that which flows over gypseous soil. Such water accelerates putrefaction, and hurts the quality of the hemp and flax. This is perfectly agreeable to the principles of chemistry: it is thus that a little salt accelerates animal putrefaction, while a greater quantity tends to prevent it. The portion of saline substances taken up by the water hastens corruption, by extending the putrid fermentation even to the filaments, which it blackens and spoils, while it ought to operate only on the juices. The flax, when taken from the water, is spread out upon the grass to dry. During the fermentation and decomposition which thence result, there is a speedy combination of oxygen and carbon. Exposure on the grass facilitates the escape of the carbonic acid into the atmosphere, and the plants become of a whitish-gray color. It is known that a lee very slightly alkaline may be substituted with advantage, for this long and noxious operation; it is therefore certain, that a chamber from twenty to thirty feet in length, into which the steam of alkaline caustic water, of the strength of one-fourth of a degree only, is introduced, will be sufficient to produce the same effect as watering on an immense quantity of hemp and flax, suspended on basket-work, in less time, and with less expense, than are required for the different manipulations of watering. The losses occasioned by the negligence of workmen, who, by suffering the hemp and flax to macerate too long, give time to the decomposition to reach the filaments, which renders them brittle, and occa

sions a considerable waste, will also be avoided In this process the artist can follow every moment the progress of his operation, and stop it at the favorable period. Nothing now remains but the wood, and the flax or fibrous part. The wood is a hollow tube covered over very compactly with the flax. To separate the wood, it must be kiln-dried, in order to render it frangible or brittle; but care must be taken not to apply too much heat, for fear of injuring the flax.

It is next to be beaten or broken, by which means the flax is not only divided into small fibres, but most of the wood is separated, and the part which adheres is reduced to small fragments. To separate these again, the flax is to be scutched, or threshed, in small parcels at a time, either by manual labor, or mills contrived for the purpose. Hackling is the last process; which is nothing more than drawing or combing the flax in small parcels at a time, through a pile or group of polished and sharp steel spikes, placed firmly in wood through an iron plate. The spikes are placed pretty close together: the first hackle (for different hackles must be used) is coarse, the second finer, and the third finer still. The process of hackling answers a double or triple purpose; first, it divides the fibres of the flax, as much as this can be effected by mechanical means; secondly, it separates the minute fragments of wood which escaped the process of scutching; and lastly, it separates the short coarse flax, commonly called tow.

Spinning and weaving are too well known to need description. The linen, as it comes from the loom, is charged with what is called the weaver's dressing, which is a paste of flour boiled in water; and as this is brushed into the yarn of the warp before it is woven, it is somewhat difficult to separate it when dry. To discharge this paste, the linen must be steeped in water for about forty-eight hours; when this extraneous substance undergoes a kind of fermentation, which does not extend to the substance of the linen itself, upon the same principle that the green sap is disengaged from the flax without injury to its texture. The linen being well washed after this fermentation, contains nothing that water can separate; it is of a grayish white color, although the fibres of which it is composed, when divested of every adventitious substance, are naturally very white. In this state the cloth is committed to the bleacher, and the process of whitening commences. Under the old system it consisted of the following series of operations: 1. Steeping and milling. 2. Bucking and boiling. 3. Alternate watering and drying. 4. Scouring or acidifying. 5. Soaping. 6. Starching and bluing.

1. Of steeping and milling.-Green linen, in the different changes which it has undergone, contracts a great degree of foulness. This is chiefly communicated to it by the matters used in the dressing, which should be effectually cleared off. The first thing therefore that is to be done in the bleach-field is to take off all that filth that is foreign to the flax, and might, in unskilful hands, be fixed in the cloth. This is the object of steeping, and to accomplish this end, the cloth is laid