of), an apocryphal and uncanonical book of Scripture. It was always rejected by the Jewish church, and is extant neither in the Hebrew nor the Chaldee language, nor is there any proof that it ever was so. St. Je rom gives it no better title than The Fable of Bel and the Dragon. BELA'AYE-CORTEX. BELA'E-CORTEX. From belae, Indian. The bark of a tree growing in Madagascar, called bela-aye. It is thin, of a yellowish colour externally, reddish within, and to the taste slightly bitter and adstringent. It is said to be very efficacious in the cure of diarrhoeas, To BELA'BOUR. v. a. (from be and labour.) To beat; to thump (Swift). BELAMIE. s. (bel amie, Fr.) A friend; an intimate out of use (Spenser). A BE'LAMOUR. s. (bel amour, Fr.) gallant; a paramour: obsolete (Spenser). BELATED. a. (from be and late.) Benighted; out of doors late at night (Milton). BELÁTUCADRUS, the name of an ancient British idol, recorded in old inscriptions; and supposed by Selden and Vossius to be the same with Belenus. To BELA'Y. v. a. 1. To block up; to stop the passage (Dryden). 2. To place in ambush (Spenser). 3. To belay a rope. To splice; to mend a rope by laying one end over another. BELCASTRO, an episcopal town of Naples, in Italy. Lat. 39. 6 N. Lon. 17. 5 E. 1. To BELCH. v. n. (bealcan, Saxon.) To eject the wind from the stomach (Arb.). 2. To issue out, as by eructation (Dryden). To BELCH. v. a. To throw out from the stomach, or any hollow place (Pope). BELCH. S. (from the verb.) 1. The act of eructation. 2. A cant term for malt liquor (Dennis). BE'LDAM. s. (belle dame, Fr.) 1. An old woman (Milton). 2. A hag (Dryden). To BELEAGUER. v. a. (beleggeren, Dutch.) To besiege; to block up a place (Dryden). BELE AGUERER. s. (from beleaguer.) One that besieges a place. BELEM, a tower of Estremadura, in Portugal, about a mile from Lisbon, on the river Tagus, which defends the entrance to that eity. Several kings and queens of Portugal are interred at an adjoining village of the same name. BELEMNITES, or BELENITES, in natural history, a kind of figured stone, usually hollow, and a little transparent, shaped somewhat like an arrow, formed of small striæ, or threads, radiating from the axis to the surface of the stone; and which when burnt, or rubbed against one another, or scraped with a knife, yields an odour like rasped horn. The word is formed from the Greek Bar, arrow. The belemnites is otherwise denominated dactylus, or dactylus idaus, on account of its bearing a resemblance to the figure of a finger; by the ancients, lyncurius lapis, or lapis lyncis, as being supposed to be generated of the urine of the lynx. See DACTYLUS. BELERIUM, in ancient geography, the promontory in Cornwall now known by the name of the Land's End. BELESIS, a priest of Babylon, who told Arbaces, governor of Media, that he should reign one day in the place of Sardanapalus. His prophecy was verified, and he was rewarded by the new king with the government of Babylon. B. C. 826. (Diod.) BELEZERO, the capital of a province of the same name, in Russia. Lat. 59. 15 N. Lon. 37. 40 E. BELFAST, a town in the county of Antrim, and chief sea-port in the north of Ireland, on the iver Lagon, which opens into a bay or arm of the sea, called Belfast Lough, or Carrick Fergu: Bay. In the year 1791, it contained 3107 houses, and 18,320 souls. It is with regard to size the fifth, and with respect to commerce the fourth, if not the third, town in the kingdom. There are upwards of seven hundred looms in it, employed in cotton, cambric, sal-cloth, and linen; these manufactures, with others of glass, sugar, and earthen-ware, the exports of linen and provisions, and a consderable trade with the West Indies, have rapidly increased its importance: seventy-six miles N. Dublin, fifty ESE, Londonderry. Lon. 5. 50 W. Greenwich. Lat. 54.35 N. BELFLOWFR. s. A plant. BELFO UNDER. s. (from bell and found. He whose trade it is to found or cast bells (Bacon). sort of BELFRY. s. (beffroy, Fr. a tower.) The place where the bells are rung (Gay). BELFRY, in military writers, a tower erected by besiegers to overlook and command the place besieged. BELGÆ, a warlike people of ancient Gaul, separated from the Celte by the rivers Matrona and Sequana. Their country extends from the Rhine to the river modernly called the Lojre (Caesar). BELGARD. s. (belle égard, French.) A soft glance out of use (Spenser). BELGIUM, the capital of Gallia Belgica. The word is often used to express the whole country (Cæsar). BELGOROD, a strong town of Bessarabia in European Turkey, 80 miles south-east of Bender. BELGOROD, the capital of a province of the same name, in Russia. Lat. 51. 10 N. Lon. 38. 36 E. BELGRADE, a strong town of Turkey in Europe, the capital of Servia, and the see of a Greek bishop. It was a large and important place; and has been the scene of much bloodshed, having been several times taken and retaken by the Christians and Turks. It was last taken by prince Eugene, in August 1717, and was kept till 1739, when it was ceded to the Turks, after demolishing the walls, so that now they are in possession of all Servia. BELGRADE, a small town of Romania, in European Turkey, 20 miles N. of Constantinople. Lat. 41. 22 N. Lon. 29. 0 E. BELIDES, in fabulous history, the fifty daughters of Danaus, who were also called Danaides. Danaus quarrelling with his brother Ægyptus, the latter proposed a reconciliaton, by marrying his fifty sons to their cousin germans the Belides to this Danaus consented; but being told by an oracle, that he should be dispossessed of his kingdom by a son-in-law, he directed his fifty daughters to kill their husbands on the first night of their marriage. This advice they all of them followed, except Hypermnestra, who suffered her husband Lyncæus to escape, who afterwards dethroned Danaus. For this crime, the rest of the Belides were punished in Tartarus, by being condemned to the endless labour of pouring water into a vessel full of holes. BELIDOR (Bernard Forest de), an engineer in the service of France, but born in Catalonia in 1698. He was professor in the new school of artillery at La Fere, where he pubEshed his course of mathematics for the use of the artillery and engineers. He was the first who seriously considered the quantity of gunpowder proper for charges, and reduced it to is the quantity. He was named associate in the Academy of Sciences in 1751, and died Sept. 8, 1761, at 63 years of age. His works that have been published are, 1. Sommaire d'un Cours d'Achitecture militaire, civile, et hydraulique, in 12mo, 1720. ? Nouveau Cours de Mathematiques, &c. in 4to, 1725. 3. La Science des Ingénieurs, in 4to, 1729. 4. Le Bombardier Francois, in 4to, 1734. 5. Architecture Hydraulique, 4 vols. in 4to, 1737. 6. Dictionnaire portatif de Ingénieur, in 8vo. 7. Traité des Fortifications, 4 vols. in 4to. Besides several pieces inserted in the volumes of the Academy of Sciences, for the years 1737, 1750, 1753, and 1756. To BELIE. v. a. (from be and lie.) 1. To counterfeit ; to feign; to mimick (Dryden). 2. To give the lie to; to charge with falsehood Dryden). 3. To calumniate (Shaksp.). 4. To give a false representation of any thing (Dryden). BELIEF. s. (from believe.) 1. Credit given to something, which we know not of ourselves (Wotton). 2. The theological virtue of faith; firm confidence of the truths of religion (Hooker). 3. Religion; the body of tenets held by the professors of faith (Hooker). 4. Persuasion; opinion (Temple). 5. The thing believed (Bacon). 6. Creed; a form containing articles of faith. BELIEF, in its more restrained and technieal sense, invented by the schoolmen, denotes that kind of assent which is grounded only on the authority, or testimony, of some person or persons, asserting or attesting the truth of any matter proposed. In this sense, belief stands opposed to knowledge and science. We do not say we believe that snow is white, or that the whole is equal to its parts; but we see and know 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 scientifical; and the comprehension of such truths is not belief, but science. But, when a thing propounded to us is neither apparent to our sense, nor evident to our understanding; neither certainly to be collected from any clear and necessary connection with the cause from which it proceeds, nor with the effects which it uaturally produces; nor is taken up upon any real arguments, or 'relation thereof to other acknowledged truths; and yet, notwithstanding, appears as true, not by a manifestation, but by an attestation of the truth, and moves us to assent, not of itself, but in virtue of a testimony given to it: this is said to be properly credible; and an assent to this is the proper notion of belief. BELIEVABLE. a. (from believe.) Cre dible. To BELIEVE. v. a. (belyran, Saxon.) 1. To credit upon the authority of another (Watts). 2. To put confidence in the veracity of any one (Exodus). To BELIEVE. v. n. 1. To have a firm persuasion of any thing (Genesis). 2. To exercise the theological virtue of faith (Shaksp.). BELIEVER. s. (from believe.) 1. He that believes, or gives credit (Hooker). 2. A professor of christianity (Hooker). BELIEVINGLY. ad. (from to believe.) After a believing manner. BELIKE. ad. (from like, as by likelihood.) Probably; likely; perhaps (Raleigh). BELILLA, in botany. See MusSÆNDA. BELISARÍUS, general of the emperor Justinian's army, who overthrew the Persians in the east, the Vandals in Africa, and the Goths in Italy. But after all his great successes and exploits, he was falsely accused of a conspiracy against the emperor. The real conspirators had been detected and seized, with daggers hidden under their garments. One of them died by his own hand, and the other was dragged from the sanctuary. Pressed by remorse, or tempted by the hopes of safety, he 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. Posterity will not hastily believe, that an hero who in the vigour of life had disdained the fairest of fers of ambition and revenge, should stoop to the murder of his prince, whom he could not long expect to survive. His followers were impatient to fly; but flight must have been supported by rebellion, and he had lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before the council with less fear than indignation after 40 years service, the emperor had prejudged his guilt; and injustice was sanctified by the presence and authority of the patriarch. The life of Belisarius was gra ciously spared but his fortunes were sequestered; and, from December to July, he was guarded as a prisoner in his own palace. At length his innocence was acknowledged; his freedon and honours were restored; and death, which might be hastened by resentment and grief, removed him from the world about eight months after his deliverance. That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread, "Give a penny to Be lisarius the general!" is a fiction of later times; which has obtained credit, or rather favour, as a strange example of the vicissitudes of fortune. The author of this story was John Izetzes, a monk of the twelfth century. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, &c. vol. vii. BELIVE. ad. (balive, Saxon.) Speedily; quickly out of use (Spenser). BELL, a well-known machine, ranked by musicians among the musical instruments of percussion. The constituent parts of a bell are the body or barrel, the clapper on the inside, and the ear or cannon by which it hangs to a large beam of wood. The matter of which it is usually made is a composition called bell-metal. The thickness of a bell's elges is usually of the diameter, and its height 12 times its thickness. The bell-founders have a diapason or bell-scale, wherewith they measure the size, thickness, weight, and tone of their bells. For the method of casting bells, see FoUNDERY. The sound of a bell is generally conjectured to consist in a vibratory motion of its parts, much like that of a musical chord. The stroke of the clapper must necessarily change the figure of the bell, and of a round make it oval: but the metal having a great degree of elasticity, that part will return back again which the stroke drove farthest off from the centre, and that even some small matter nearer the centre than before; so that the two parts which before were extremes of the longest diameter, do then become those of the shortest; and thus the external surface of the bell undergoes alternate changes of figure, and by that means gives that tremulous motion to the air in which the sound consists. M. Perrault maintains, that the sound of the same bell or chord is a compound of the sounds of the several parts thereof, so that where the parts are homogeneous, and the dimensions of the figure uniform, there is such a perfect mixture of all these sounds as constitutes one uniform, smooth, even sound; and the contrary circumstances produce harshmess. This he proves from the bell's differing, in tone according to the part you strike; and yet strike it any where, there is a motion of all the parts. He therefore considers bells as a compound of an infinite number of rings, which according to their different dimensions have different tones, as chords of different lengths have; and when struck, the vibrations of the parts immediately struck determine the tone, being supported by a sufficient number of consonant tones in the other parts of the instrument. farther if the bell is situated on a plain than on a hill, and still farther in a valley than on a plain. The reason of this will not be difficult to assign, if it be considered that the higher the sonorous body is, the rarer is its medium; con. sequently, the less impulse it receives, and the less proper vehicle it is to convey it to a distance. Bells are of very ancient as well as extensive use. We find them among Jews, Greeks, Romans, Christians, and heathens, variously applied; as on the necks of men, beasts, birds, horses, sheep: but chiefly hung in buildings, either religious, as in churches, temples, and monasteries; or civil, as houses, markets, baths; or military, as in camps and frontier towns, &c. When church bells were first invented, or who first introduced them into use in the Latin church, is as yet undetermined. Some ascribing them to pope Sabinianus, successor of St. Gregory, in the year 604; and others to Paulinus, bishop of Nola, cotemporary with St. Jerom: but the latter seems to be erroneons. Cardinal Bona would have it thought that they began to be used in the Latin church immediately upon the conversion of the em perors to Christianity, because the tintinnabu la, or smaller sort of bells, had been used before by the heathens to the like purpose: but there is no ancient author that countenances his conjecture. Bells were first employed in the eastern church in the year 865, when Ursus Patriciacus, duke of Venice, made a present of a set to Michael, the Greek emperor, who built a tower to the church Sancta Sophia to hang them in. As to the introduction of church bells inta England, we are informed by historians that they were first brought to the then splendid abbey of Croyland in Lincolnshire: thus Iugulphus mentions, that Turketulus abbot of Croyland, who died about the year 870, gave a great bell to the church of that abbey, which he named Guthlac; and afterwards six others, viz. two which he called Bartholomew and Bettelin, two called Turketul and Tatwin, and two named Pega and Bega, all which rang together. These bells have been lately recast, and form the set of bells which are now made use of in those remains of the abbey which form the parish church. In popish times, bells were baptised and anointed oleo chrismatis: they were exorcised and blessed by the bishop, from a belief, that, when these ceremonies were performed, they had power to drive the devil out of the air, to calm tempests, to extinguish fire, and to recreate even the dead. Durandus, in speaking of the ancient monasteries, enumerates six kinds of bells, viz. squilla, rung in the refectory; cymbalum, in the cloister; nola, in the choir; nolula or dupla, in the clock; campana, in the steeple ; and signum in the tower. In China there have been made bells of most, enormous weight: at Pekin there are seven The sound of a bell is observed to be heard bells cast in the reign of Youlo each of which #zighs about 120,000 pounds. At Nankin there is a bell which weighs full 50,000 pounds. Few bells in Europe can be comFred with either of these in point of weight: the great bell at Erfort, in Upper Saxony, weighs about 25,400 pounds: it is said that the great bell at Rouen in Normandy weighs 35,000 pounds; but even this is much inferior to the Chinese bells. Some authors assire us that the bells at Moscow are the largest in the world; and if their testimony may be relied upon, the weight and magnitude of these bells are truly astonishing: the bell given by Boris Godonof to the cathedral of Moscow weighed 288,000 pounds; but this is surpassed by the bell which was cast by the order of the empress Anne: the weight of this stupendous bel is 432,000 pounds, its height 19 feet, its circumference at the bottom more than 21 yards, and its greatest thickness 23 inches. After mentioning these, the weights of the great bells in England will appear very trifling: the great bell at Oxford weighs 17,000 pounds; that at St. Paul's, London, 11,474; and great Tom of Lincoln only 10,854 pounds. BALL (Diving). See DIVING BELL. BELL, in building, is sometimes used to drance the body of the Corinthian and compole capital. BELLS (Electrical), are used in a variety of entertaining experiments by electricians. The paratus, which is originally of German invention, consists of three small bells suspended from a narrow plate of metal; the two outermost by chains, and that in the middle, from which a chain passes to the floor, by a silken string. Two small knobs of brass are also hung by silken strings, one on each side of the bell in the middle, which serve for clappers. When this apparatus is connected with an electrified conductor, the outermost bells suspended by the chains will be charged, attract the clappers, and be struck by them. The clappers becoming electrified likewise will be repelled by these bells, and attracted by the middle bell, and discharge themselves upon it by means of the chain extending to the floor. After this, they will be again attracted by the outermost bells; and thus, by striking the bells alternately, occasion a ringing, which may be continued at pleasure. Flashes of light will be seen in the dark between the bells and clappers; and if the electrification be strong, the discharge will be made without actual contact, and the ringing will cease. An apparatus of this kind, connected with one of these conductors that are erected for securing buildings from lightning, will serve to give potice of the approach and passage of an electrical cloud. BELL-GLASS, a vessel in the shape of a bell, with a knob at the top to remove it by, much used in chemical experiments, particuhark these in which the gases are employed, or exhalations are to be collected. BELL-METAL is composed of copper and about one-sixth of tin, which is the usual proprion for church-bells: in clock-bells the proportion of tin is smaller, and a little zinc is added, especially for very small bells. BELL-FLOWER. In botany. See CAMPANULA. BELLS (Canterbury). BELLS (Coventry). In botany? See CAMPANULA. BELLS (Hair). See HYACINTHUS. BELL-PEPPER. See CAPSICUM. BELL-SHAPED, BELL-FORM, or CAMPANULATE COROL. (campanulata.) In botany, swelling or bellying out without any tube, as in campanula, convolvulus, atropa, gentiana, &c.-This term is applied properly to monopetalous corols only, although it be sometimes extended to such as are polypetalous.-Calyxes, as in chironia; and nectaries, as in narcissus, are also bell-shaped. Tournefort has a class of campanulate or bell-shaped flowers. To BELL. v. n. (from the noun.) To grow in the form of a bell (Mortimer). This BELLADONNA. (belladonna, from bella donna, handsome lady. Italian.) It is so called, because the ladies of Italy use it to take away the too florid colour of their faces.) Solanum melanocerasus. Solanum lethale. Deadly nightshade, or dwale. Atropa belladonna, caule herbaceo, foliis ovatis integris of Linnéus. Pentandria. Monogynia. plant has been long known as a strong poison of the narcotic kind, and the berries have furnished many instances of their fatal effects, particularly upon children that have been tempted to eat thein. The leaves were fir used externally, to discuss scirrhous and ncerous tumours, and from the good fects attending their use physicians were induced to employ them internally for the same sorders; and there are a considerable number of wellauthenticated facts, which prove serviceable and important remely. The dose, at first, should be small, aid gradually and cautiously increased. Five grains are considered a powerful dose, and apt to produce dimness of sight, vertig, &c. See SOLANUM. them a very BELLA'RDIA. in botany, a genus of the class tetrandria, orde monogynia. Calyx fourcleft, superior; necary with a four-lobed margin, surrounding the style; capsule two-celled, two-partible, many-seeded. One species; a native of Guaina. BELLARMIN (Robert), an Italian Jesuit, one of the best controversial writers of his time. In 1576 he read lectures at Rome on controversies; which he did with such applause, that Sixtus V., sending a legate into France in 1599, appointed him as a divine, in case any dispute in religion should happen to be discussed. He returned to Rome, and was raised successively to different offices, till at last, in 1599, he was honoured with a cardinal's hat; to accept of which dignity, it is said, they were obliged to force him by the threats of an anathema. It is certain, that no Jesuit ever did greater honour to his order than he; and that no author ever defended the eause of the Romish church in general, and that of the pope in particular, to more advan taze. The Protestants have owned this sufficiently: for, during the space of 50 years, there was scarcely any considerable divine among them who did not fix upon this author for the subject of his books of controversy. Notwithstanding the zeal with which this esuit maintained the power of the pope over the temporality of kings, he displeased Sixtus V. in his work De Romano Pontifice, by not insisting that the power which Jesus Christ gave to his vicegerent was direct, but only indirect; and had the mortification to see it put into the index of the inquisition, though it was afterwards removed. He left, at his death, to the Virgin Mary one half of his soul, and to Jesus Christ the other. Bellarmin is said to have been a mon 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 the 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 rasure in his writings. BELLATRIX, a ruddy star of the second magnitude marked, in Orion. BELLCLARE, or BELAGLOw, a town of Sligo, in Ireland. Lat. 54. 1 N. Lon. S. 54 W. BELLE. s. (beau, belle, French.) A young lady (Pope). BELLEAU (Rem), a French poet, born at Nogent le Rotrou, then in the territory of che, and province of Orleanois. He lived in the family of Reanatus of Lorrain, marquis of Eltuf, general of the French galleys; and attended him in his expedition into Italy, in 1557 is prince highly esteemed Belleau for his course; and having also a high opinion of his genius and abilities, entrusted hini with the education : his son Charles of Lorrain. Belleau was one of the seven poets of his time who were denominated the French Pleiades. He wrote several pices; and translated the odes of Anacreon into the French language, but in this he is thought not to have preserved all the natural beauties of the original. His pastoral pieces are in the greatest esteem. His verses in that way (according to his eulogists) are expressed with such beauty and simplicity, that they seem to be a living picture of what they describe. He also wrote an excellent poem on the nature and difference of precious stones, which by some has been reputed his best performance. Belleau died at Paris, in the family of the duke d'Elbeuf, on the 6th of March, 1577. He was interred in the church De Peres Augustines, near the Pont-neuf: several eulogiums were made to his memory. BELLEGARD, a strongly fortified place of Rousillon, in France, on the frontiers of Catalonia. It is the passage to the Pyrennees. Lat. 42. 27 N. Lon. 2. 56 E. BELLEGARDE, a town in the department of Soane and Loire, and late province of Burgundy in France. Lat. 46. 57 N. Lon. 5 10 E. BELLE ISLE, an island on the coast of Brittany, in France. It is about 15 miles long, and 5 broad. It was taken by the Engfish in 1761, but was restored to France at the treaty of 1763. Lat. 47. 18 N. Lon. 3.6 W. BELLE ISLE, an island of North America, at the mouth of the strait between New Britain and Newfoundland. The passage between them is called the strait of Belle Isle. Lat. 51. 55 N. Lon. 55. 25 W. BELLENDEN (William), a learned Scotch writer of the 16th century. He was humanity professor at Paris, in 1602, where he published his first work, entitled, Ciceronis Princeps, in 1008. His next was Ciceronis Consul, 1612. Both these pieces were inscribed to Henry prince of Wales. In 1616, he published a second edition, with the addition of Liber de Statu Prisci Orbis, dedicated to prince Charles. These treatises were edited at London, in 1787, by the learned Dr. Samuel Parr; whose eloquent and masterly Latin preface excited a considerable degree of attention and admiration, even with many who disapproved of several of the sentiments advanced by the learned editor. He thought proper to ascribe the treatises to Mr. Burke, lord North, and Mr. Fox, whose re-pective portraits are prefixed to cach dedication, and whose talents and virtues he celebrates and defends in a preface of seventy-six pages, containing a very free and bold discussion of our public men and measures in very classical language, and a strong and satirical representation, under borrowed names of antiquity, of the chiefs of the other party, or the Pitt ministry. Bellenden wrote another work, published after his death, De tribus Luminibus Romanorum, whom he conceives to be Cicero, Seneca, and the elder Pliny. The editor gives an account of this work, from whence he took the idea of drawing his characters of the three luminaries of Great Britain. He marks the proficiency in Greek and Roman literature which once distinguished the Scotch, before the civil dissensions drove their brightest geniuses abroad, and celebrates the ardour for philosophy and literature so prevalent in North Britain at present. Dr. Middleton has been charged with borrowing not only the matter, but the arrangement, of his Life of Cicero from Bellenden, without the least acknowledgment, and the editor confesses himself of this opinion. BELLEROPHION, in fabulous history, son of Glaucus, king of Ephyre, by Eurymede, was at first called Hipponous. The murder of his brother, whom some call Alcimenus and Beller, procured him the name of Bellerophon, or murderer of Beller. After this murder, Bellerophon fled to the court of Protus, king of Argos. As he was of a handSome appearance, the king's wife, called Sthenobora, fell in love with him; and as he slighted her passion, she accused him, before her husband, of attempts upon her virtue. Proctus, unwilling to violate the laws of hospi |