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And dead, as living, 'tis our author's pride Still to charm those who charm the world beside. Id. The Stoicks did hold a necessary connexion of causes; but they believed that God doth act præter et contra naturam, besides and against nature. Bramhall.

Providence often disposes of things by a method beside and above the discoveries of man's reason.

South. It is beside my present business to enlarge upon this speculation. Locke. Outlaws and robbers, who break with all the world besides, must keep faith among themselves. Id. Precepts of morality, besides the natural corruption of our tempers, are abstracted from ideas of sense.

Addison.

Some wonder that the Turk never attacks this treasury. But, besides that he has attempted it formerly with no success, it is certain that the Venetians keep too watchful an eye.

BESIEGE', v. & n.,` BESIEGE MENT, BESIEG'ER,

BESIEG'ING.

Id.

Be and siege. See SIEGE. To beleaguer; to lay siege to; to beset with armed forces; to endeavour to win a town or fortress, by surrounding it with an army, and forcing the defendants, either by violence or famine, to give admission.

And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down. Deuteronomy.

And after of her mischefe and her woe, Now that she was besieged and ytake.

Chaucer. Cant. Tales. The queen, with all the northern earls and lords, Intends here to besiege you in your castle. Shakspeare. Thou shalt behold

Whether by supplication we intend
Address, and to begirt the almighty throne
Beseeching or besieging.

Milton

There is hardly a town taken in the common forms, where the besiegers have not the worse of the bargain. Swift.

BESILVER. Be and silver. See SILVER. BESISTAN, or BEZESTEIN, a name given by the Turks to those places at Constantinople, Adrianople, &c. where the merchants have their shops, and expose their merchandises to sale. Synonymous, therefore with BAZAAR, which see. BESIT. Be and sit. See SIT.

BE'SLAVE. Be and slave. See SLAVE. BESLAV'ER. Be and slaver, or slabber. See

SLAVER.

BESLER (Basilius), an apothecary at Nuremberg in Germany, and an eminent botanist, published a work entitled Hortus Eystetensis, and gave name to the genus of plants called besle

ria.

BESLERIA, in botany, a genus of the angiospermia order, and didynimia class of plants. Of this genus there are three species; viz. 1. B. christata, with stalks growing single, and a fiveleaved involucrum. 2. B. lutea, with simple footstalks growing in clusters, and spear-shaped leaves. 3. B. melittifolia, with branching footstalks and oval leaves. All are natives of the warm parts of America, and cannot be preserved in this country without artificial heat

BESLIME. Be and slime. See SLIME. BESLUB'BER. Be and slubber, slobber, slaver. See SLAVER.

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BESNUFFED. Be and snuff. See SNUFF. BESOLDE (Christopher), born at Tubingen, 1577, published a Synopsis of the Art of Politics, and of the Transactions from the Creation of the World to the reign of the emperor Ferdinand, both in 8vo; A History of the Ottoman Empire; A Brief Account of the Kings of Jerusalem; Documents Illustrative of the History of the Religious Houses in Wirtemberg, 4to; a quarto volume of Philological Dissertations; Documents connected with the Collegiate Church of Stutgard, and with the Church of Backhenang; and two treatises, entitled Virginum Sacrarum Monumenta, and Prodromus Vindiciarum Ecclesiast. Wirtemb. 4to. He made a public abjuration of Protestantism, and died in 1638

BE'SOM. From Germ., butzen, to cleanse; Sax. berm, herma; an instrument to sweep with. the Lord of hosts. I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith Isaiah xiv. 22. Bacon commended an old man who sold besoms: a proud young fellow came to him for a besom upon trust; the old man said, Borrow of thy back and belly, they will never ask thee again; I shall dun thee every day.

Bacon.

BESORCH, a coin of tin, or some base metal, current at Ormus, at the rate of seven forty-ninth parts of a farthing sterling.

BESORE'. Be and sore, Ang.-Sax. syrwan, syrewan, syrewain; to vex; teaze; to hurt; to annoy; to mortify.

So him they led on to the courts of day,

But in that house eternal peace doth play,
Where never war nor wounds abide him more;
Acquieting the souls that new besore,
Their way to heaven through their own blood did

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He is besotted, and has lost his reason; and what then can there be for religion to take hold of him by? South. BESOUR'. Be and sour. See SOUR. To wax sour, or sharp.

How should we abhor, and loath, and detest this old leaven that so besowres all our actions; this heathenism of unregenerate carnal nature which makes our best works so unchristian. Hammond. BESOZZI, or BEZUTIUS (Ambrose), a painter of eminence, born at Milan in 1648. He worked some time under Joseph Danedi, or Montalti, and afterwards went to Rome, where he studied from the antiques and the pictures of the greatest masters, and at last perfected himself in the school of Ciro Ferri. His great excellency consisted in painting architecture, friezes, imitations of bassrelievos, and other decorations. He died at Milan in 1796, aged fifty-eight. BESPAN'GLE. Be and spangle. See SPANGLE. Any thing shining; brilliant; drops in clusters.

For now the last day's evening dew
Even to the full itself doth shew,
Each bough with pearl bespangling.

Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright,

Drayton

The heavens bespangling with dishevelled light. Pope. BESPATTER. Be and spatter. See SPATTER. To besmear and soil by spitting; to throw filth at random at any object, so as partially and irregularly but not wholly to cover it; figuratively, to asperse and calumniate.

Those who will not take vice into their bosoms, shall yet have it bespatter their faces.

Government of the Tongue. His weapons are the same which women and children use; a pin to scratch, and a squirt to bespatter.

Swift.

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give utterance to words; we use it to express a wish; to put in a claim; to order, as of a tradesman, for something forthcoming; to bespeak a play is to request its performance at a particular time; to request attention; to address; to betoken; to foreshow.

Ball. Acts of English Votaries. See how this remonstrant would invest himself, conditionally, with all the rheum of the town, that he might have sufficient to bespaul his brethren.

With hearty words her knight she 'gan to cheer, And, in her modest manner, thus bespake : Dear knightFaerie Queene.

Milton. Animad.

BESPEAK', { Be and speak. See SPEAK.
BESPEAK ER. To bespeak is not merely to

If you will marry, make your love to me! My lady is bespoke.

Shakspeare. Id.

Here is the cap your worship did bespeak. How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake

Enow of such as for their bellies' sake

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold. Milton.
At length with indignation thus he broke

His awful silence, and the powers bespoke. Dryden.
Then staring on her with a ghastly look,
And hollow voice, he thus the queen bespoke.

Id.

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A heavy writer was to be encouraged, and accordingly many thousand copies were bespoke. Swift. They started fears, bespoke dangers, and formed ominous prognosticks, in order to scare the allies. Id.

When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so

little the figure of a man, that it bespoke him rather a monster.

Locke.

He has dispatched me hence, With orders that bespeak a mind composed. Addison. They mean not with love to be the bespeaker of the work, but delight in the work itself. Wotton.

There dwelt a sage called Discipline; his head, Not yet by time completely silvered o'er, Bespoke him past the bounds of peakish youth, But strong for service still and unimpaired. Cowper. BESPECK'LE. Be and speckle. See SPECKLE. A peculiar kind of spotting; an intermixture of colors; to mark.

Her chaste and modest vail, surrounded with celestial beams, they overlaid with wanton tresses, and in a flaming tire bespeckled her with all the gaudy allurements of a whore.

Milton. Of Reformation in England. pendo, to weigh. See SPEND. To weigh out; BESPENT'. Be and spend, from the Latin to give out; to distribute. BESPET',

BESPIT.'

Be and spit. See SPIT.

BESPICE'. Be and spice. See SPICE. To mix various species of aromatics; to drug or to flavor liquor with aromatic ingredients. Thou might'st bespice a cup To give mine enemy a lasting wink. Shakspeare. BESPOT. Be and spot. See SPOT. cover with spots.

Το

Thy blameful lines, bespotted so with sin, Mine eye would cleanse, e'er they to read begin. Drayton.

BESPREAD'. Be and spread. See SPREAD.
At peep
of day, when in her crimson pride
The morn bespreads with roses all the way
Where Phoebus' couch with radiant course must glide,
The hermit bends his humble knees to pray.
Thomas Lodge.

BESPRENT. To besprinkle.
And first within the porch and jawes of hell
Sate deep remorse of conscience, all besprent
With teares.
Mirror for Magistrates.

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I suppose, and more than suppose, it will be nothing disagreeing from Christian meekness, to handle such a one in a rougher accent, and to send home his haughtiness well bespurted with his own holy water. Milton.

BESSARABIA, a territory of Russia in Europe, comprehending a part of Moldavia ceded by the Porte at the peace of Bukharest in 1812, and Bessarabia Proper, called Bújak by the Turks. Between 45° and 48° N. lat., 28° and 31° E, long., containing about 8800 square miles. It is bounded on the south by the Pruth and the Danube, on the west by a small river, called Rakitno, on the north by the Dniester, and on the east by the Black sea; and divided into two parts: 1. The Moldavian division containing seven trinúts, or circles; Khotini, Khotim, or Choczim, Soróka, Orkhéï, Faltshì, Khotornitchan, Codrz, and Gretchan. 2. Bessarabia Proper, subdivided into the circles of Bender, Kausharian, and Ismâìl-Tomarovian. Bessarabia Proper was the Scythian desert of the ancients. The population has been estimated at 300,000; but it is probably much below that number, as the country has been almost depopulated by the wars of the neighbourhood. Bulgarians, Moldavians, Armenians, Jews, Tartars, and Servians constitute the bulk of its inhabitants; and to these may be added Gipsies. In the lakes of Ak-kirman, salt is manufactured, shagrin at Ismâil; these are almost the only manufactures. The Russian government has raised a considerable revenue from the fisheries, and salt works, as likewise from duties on spirits, &c. the whole amounting to perhaps 3,000,000 piastres or £150,000.

BESSARION, titular patriarch of Constantinople, was born at Trebizond. He was very zealous to reunite the Greek with the Latin church, and engaged the emperor John Paleologus to interest himself in bringing about this great work. He appeared at the council of Florence, and narangued the fathers on this topic. The Greek senismatics conceived so mortal an aversion to

him, that he was obliged to remain in Italy, where pope Eugenius I. honored him with the purple in 1439. He fixed his abode in Rome, and would have been raised to the papal chair, if cardinal Alain had not opposed it, as injurious to the Latin church to choose a Greek, however illustrious. He was employed in several embassies, but that to France proved fatal to him. When legate to this court, he happened to visit the duke of Burgundy, before he saw Louis XI. which so piqued the capricious haughty monarch, that he gave him a very ungracious reception. He even took the cardinal legate by the beard, saying Barbara Græca genus retinent quod habere solebant; an affront which so chagrined him, according to Matthieu, as to occasion his death at Ravenna, upon his return in 1472. Bessarion loved and protected_the_literati. Argyropilus, Theodore of Gaza, Poggio, Laurentius Valla, &c. formed in his house a kind of academy. His library was large and curious; and the synod of Venice long preserved it. He left some works, which rank among those which helped to revive letters; as, Defensio Doctrine Platonicæ, &c. Translations of some pieces of Aristotle, Orations, Epistles, &c.

BESSE, a copper coin, current at the island Ormus, in the Persian gulf, equal to four cosbegs, or 1d sterling.

BESSE, in ichthyology, the sea wolf.

BESSI, the ancient inhabitants of Bessica, a fierce and barbarous people, noted for their robberies. Their chief city Uscudama is now known by the name of Adrianople. They lived under their own kings till the consulate of M. Licinius, Lucullus, and C. Cassius Varus; when Lucullus invaded their country, and having gained a great victory over them, took their metropolis, and subjected the whole nation to the Roman laws. The Romans, notwithstanding they had subdued them by force of arms, still suffered them to live under their own kings. But Piso, while he governed Macedon as proconsul, having treacherously seized Rabocentus, whom Suetonius calls prince of the Bessi, caused him to be publicly beheaded. This so exasperated the nation, that they revolted; but were overcome by Octavius the father of Augustus. During the civil wars of Rome, they attempted anew to recover their liberty, but were again defeated by the famous M. Brutus. In the reign of Augustus, one Vologesus, a native of the country, and priest of Bacchus, having, under pretence of religion, drawn together great crowds of people, made himself master of this country; and entering the Chersonesus, committed the most dreadful ravages. He was at last, however, overcome by L. Piso ; who obliged the inhabitants to lay down their arms. From this time the Bessi continued subject to the Romans, without attempting any more to recover their liberty.

BESSICA, in ancient geography, a district of Thrace towards mount Hamus, to the south of the Hebrus; inhabited by the Bessi.

BESSIS CENTESIME denotes two thirds of centesimal interest, or usury at 8 per cent. BEST, adj. & adv. Į Used as the irregular BEST'NESS. superlative of good. Sax. ber, berera, berrt, good, better, best. That

which has good qualities in the highest degree; the utmost power; the highest perfection. To improve to the utmost.

For I dare swere wel, if that she
Had among tenne thousande ybe,

She wolden have be, at [with] the beste,
A chefe myroure of all the feste.

Chaucer. Boke of the Duchesse. He shall dwell in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best. Deut. xxiii. 16. And he will take your fields, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 1 Sam. viii. 14. When the best things are not possible, the best may be made of those that are.

Hooker.

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BESTAIN'. Be and stain. Chaucer uses distain. See STAIN. To mark with spots; to spoil or vitiate the color.

We will not line his thin bestained cloke With our pure honours. Shakspeare. BESTARCHA, a dignity in the courts of the emperors of Constantinople, supposed to answer to that of the master of the chancery among us. The word seems to have been formed from vestarcha, by a change of the v into b.

BESTEAD'. Be and stead. See STEAD. To be in place; to be in stead. It also signifies accommodation, good or ill: when used in this sense, Dr. Johnson says it should be written bested. Milton uses it in the sense of advantage, How little you bestead;' that is confer, or bestow.

For were a manne for her bestadde, She woulde ben right sore a dradde. Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rose. They shall pass through it hardly bestead, and

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beast; a degradation of reason and of humanity. I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. Shakspeare. Othello.

O foul descent! that I who erst contended
With gods to sit the highest, am now constrained
Into a beast, and mixed with bestial slime,
This essence to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the height of Deity aspired.
But what will not Ambition and Revenge
Descend to.

For those, the race of Israel oft forsook
Their living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial gods.

Milton.

Id.

The things promised are not gross and carnal, such as may court and gratify the most bestial part of us. Decay of Piety. His wild disordered walk, his haggard eyes, Did all the bestial citizens surprize. Dryden. What can be a greater absurdity, than to affirm bestiality to be the essence of humanity, and darkness the centre of light?

Arbuthnot and Pope's Mart. Scrib. Thus fornication, incest, rape, and even bestiality, were sanctified by the amours of Jupiter, Pan, Mars, Goldsmith. Venus, and Apollo.

BESTIARII, in Roman antiquity, those who fought against beasts, or who were exposed to them by the sentence of the law. There were four kinds of bestiarii; viz. 1. Those who made a trade of it, and fought for money. 2. Such young men as, to show their strength and dexterity in managing their arms, fought against beasts: Augustus encouraged this practice in young men of the first rank; Nero exposed himself to it: and it was for the killing beasts in the amphitheatre, that Commodus acquired the title of the Roman Hercules. 3. The third kind was, where several bestiarii were let loose at once, well armed, against a number of beasts. 4. The fourth kind were those condemned to the beasts, consisting either of prisoners taken in war, or slaves guilty of some enormous crimes; these were exposed naked, and without defence: nor did it avail any thing to conquer and kill the beast, fresh ones being continually let loose on them, till they were put to death. But it seldom happened that two were required for the same man; on the contrary, one beast frequently despatched several men. Cicero mentions a lion, which alone despatched 200 bestiarii. Those who succeded the first were called pɛopot, and the last EOxazo; among the Romans meridiani. BESTICK. Be and stick. See STICK. Ang.Sax. sticcan. To stick, to pierce. Truth shall retire Bestuck with slanderous darts; and works of faith Rarely be found: so shall the world go on, To good malignant, to bad men benign. Milton BESTILLED. Be and still. See STILL. To make quiet; to calm; to tranquillise. The choral muses droop! Their harps unstrung, The lutes, and laurel wreaths neglected fall! Commerce bestilled her many-nationed tongue, Whilom so busy in her bustling hall. Cunningham.

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BESTORM'. Be and storm. See STORM.

derive it from bestract; perhaps it is corrupted from distraught. Distracted; mad; out of one's senses; out of one's wits.

O goddesse sonne, in such case canst thou sleepe Ne yet, bestraught, the daungers doest foresee That compasse thee? or hearst the faire windes blowe? Surrey.

Ask Marian, the fat alewife, if she knew me not. What! I am not bestraught. Shakspeare. BESTREAK'. Be and streak. See STREAK To draw a stroke with a pen, a line; to bestreak is to mark with lines.

Besides, as presents for my soul's delight, Two beauteous kids I keep bestreaked with white. Beattie.

BESTREW', Be and strew.

See STREW.

BESTROWN'. To scatter; to disperse; to

sprinkle over a surface.

Good morrow to this primrose too,

Good morrow to each maid,

That will with flowers the tomb bestrew
Wherein my love is laid.

Herrick.

Those blossoms also, and those dropping gums,

To agitate, to drive about furiously; to assail That lie bestrown unsightly and unsmooth,

with irresistible violence.

Religion Providence! an after state! Here is firm footing; here is solid rock! This can support us; all is sea besides: Sinks under us, bestorms, and then devours.

Young.

BESTOW', Ang.-Sax. stow. That is BESTOWING, place. Bestow is to collect BESTOW'ER.' into a place; to put, to confer, to give or grant. It has a very extensive applieation, as the following extracts will show.

All the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim. 2 Chron. xxiv. 7. And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, sheep, or for wine. Deut. xiv. 26. And when he came to the Tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house. 2 Kings v. 24. Our Saviour doth plainly witness, that there should not be as much as a cup of cold water bestowed for his sake, without reward. Hooker.

All men would willingly have yielded him praise; but his nature was such as to bestow it upon himself, before any could give it. Sidney.

Good reverend father, make my person yours; And tell me how you would bestow yourself.

Shakspeare.

And though he was unsatisfied in getting, Which was a sin; yet in bestowing, madam, He was most princely.

That bay they enter which unto them owes The noblest wreaths which victory bestows.

Id.

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Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease.

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Make him bestride the ocean, and mankind Ask his consent to use the sea and wind. Waller. The bounding steed you pompously bestride, Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.

Pope.

With the first pause the resting rowers gave, He waits not looks not-leaps into the wave, Strives through the surge-bestrides the beach-and high

Ascends the path familiar to his eye.

Byron.

BESTRUT'. Be and strut. See STRUT. The common word is a-strut, assumed consequence in walking. Swelled but, distended, is the primary sense: Paps bestrut with milk,' occurs in Holland's Plutarch.

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