Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/459

Rh zu den Jfalaien von Sumatra, 1874) lias endeavoured to prove its closer affinity with the Malay proper. Like most languages spoken by less civilized tribes, the Batak is poor in general terms, but abounds in terms for special objects. The number of dialects is three, viz., the Toba, the Mandailing, and the Dairi dialects ; the first and second have again two subdivisions each. The Battas further possess six peculiar or recondite modes of speech, such as the hata andung, or language of the wakes, and the hata poda, or the soothsayer s language. A fair acquaintance with reading and writing is very general among them. Their alphabet is said, with the Rejang and Lampong alphabets, to be of Indian origin. The language is written on bark or bamboo staves from bottom to top, the lines being arranged from left to right. The Batak literature consists chiefly in books on witchcraft, in stories, riddles, incantations, &c., and is mostly in prose, occasionally varied by verse. See on it the fourth volume of the Batak Leesboek, or Header, above mentioned.  BATTERING RAM (Aries), a military engine used before the invention of gunpowder, for beating down the walls of besieged fortresses. It consisted of a long heavy beam of timber, armed at the extremity with iron fashioned something like the head of a ram. In its simplest form the beam was carried in the hands of the soliders, who assailed the walls with it by main force. The improved ram was composed of a longer beam, in some cases extending to 120 feet, shod with iron at one end, and suspended, either by the middle or from two points, from another beam laid across two posts. This is the kind described by Josephus as having been used at the siege of Jerusalem (B. ./., iii. 7, 19). It was covered over with a roof, shell, or screen of boards (called the testudo) to protect the men employed in working it from the stones, darts, and other missiles discharged by the besieged from the walls. It was also provided with wheels, which greatly facilitated its operations. A hundred soldiers at a time, and sometimes even a greater number, were employed to work it, and the parties were relieved in constant succes sion. Josephus says that no wall could resist the continued application of the ram.  BATTERY is the tactical unit of artillery. It is the term applied to the largest number of fully equipped mobile guns which can be personally superintended by one man. Batteries may be divided into the four classes of horse, field, mountain, and position artillery batteries. In England, France, and Germany batteries consist of six guns; in Austria and Russia of eight guns each. The guns of horse field artillery are drawn by from four to eight horses, the usual number being six. Each battery has a certain number of men told off for the service of the gun called gunners, and others to manage the draught called drivers. In the horse artillery the gunners are mounted on horses, in field batteries they are carried on the limbers and waggons, in mountain and position bat teries both gunners and drivers usually walk. Both horse and field batteries are recognised tactical units of an army, and are maintained in an efficient state in time of peace. Position batteries are organized generally in time of war, are possessed of the heaviest guns consistent with mobility, and are useful in certain special cases, such as the attack or defence of a fortified position, the bombardment of a town, &c. Mountain batteries consist usually of light guns mounted on the backs of mules, and are adapted solely for warfare in mountainous countries. See. The term battery is also applied to the companies of dismounted artillerymen necessary to fight fortress and siege guns; to separate groups of guns in permanent works; and to the earthworks constructed for the protection of guns in siege operations.  BATTERY, as a term, is the unlawful beating of another. See, ..  BATTEUX,, a French writer on philosophy and the principles of literature, was born near Youziers in 1713, and died in 1780. In 1739 he came to Paris,, and after having taught with success in the colleges of Lisieux and Navarre, was appointed to the chair of Greek and Roman philosophy in the College of France. In 1746 he published his treatise Beaux Arts rcduits & une meme Principe, in which he extended the Aristotelian definition of the art of poetry to art of all kinds. His Cours de BeUes-Lettres, 5 vols., 1765, was afterwards included with some minor writings iu the large treatise Principes de la Litterature, 1774. The rules for composition there laid, down are, perhaps, too methodical and pedantic. His philosophical writings were La Morale d ! Epicure tiree de ses2)roprcs ccrits, 1758, and the Histoire de Causes Premieres, 17G9, a survey of the history of philosophy which is by no means devoid of merit. In consequence of the freedom with which he attacked in this work the abuse of authority in matters of philosophy, he was removed from his professorial chair. His last and most extensive work was a Cours d ctudes a Vusage des eleves de I ecole militaire, 45 vols.  BATTICALOA, the chief town of a district in the Eastern Province of Ceylon, situated on an island in lat. 7 44 N. and long. 81 52 E. It is of importance for its haven and the adjacent salt lagoons. The inhabitants are principally natives; but there is a fort and an English settlement. Population of town, 3353, and of district, 93,220.  BATTLE, an engagement between two armies, as dis tinguished from the skirmishes, or minor actions, fought between their smaller sections. A battle is said to be general, where the whole, or the greater part, of each army is brought into action ; and partial, where only brigades, divisions, or some corps d arnie e out of several upon the ground, are engaged. However the numbers may vary, the great principles to be applied in delivering battle are at root in all ages the same. It is no doubt true that, in the circumstances under which battles are fought, there is nothing invariable ; on the contrary, it is scarcely pos sible to suppose two cases alike in every particular, or even resembling each other in all their leading features. From the very nature of things, the minor data of the problem are variable; but the grand principles those which de pend on moral elements continue immutably the same. On the other hand, the material elements which enter into the calculations of a general are constantly changing ; and it is this circumstance which affords scope for the exercise of his genius, his sagacity, and his military science. But it would be manifestly absurd to maintain that, because the lesser conditions are so frequently altered, the great principles of the art are changed with them. The issue of battle is indeed always uncertain, because the calcula tions of the general may be defective, his combinations unscientific, his foresight limited, or his temperament rash and impetuous ; and because, even where none of these causes of failure exist, events which no human sagacity could have divined or provided against may occur to defeat the wisest plans. But all this implies that if every contingency could have been foreseen and properly met, the result would not have been doubtful, and that the grand chances are always on the side of him who, being provided with sufficient means for his end, forms his plan with the greatest sagacity, and executes it with corre sponding vigour and ability. For, variable as the results of battles appear, decisive success has in all ages followed the combinations of great commanders ; and victory in the long-run has seldom failed to pay homage to science. And this is because those principles which science has established as universally applicable depend on certain fixed laws in 