Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/589

Rh BENGAZI, a seaport town on the northern coast of Africa, and capital of the province of Barca, is situated on a narrow strip of land between the Gulf of Sidra and a salt lake, in 30 7 N. lat. and 20 3 E. long. Though for the most part poorly built, it has one or two buildings of some pretension an ancient castle, a mosque, a Franciscan monastery, Government buildings, and barracks. The wells in the town being brackish, drinking -water has to be brought from the village of Sowani. The harbour is almost rendered useless by accumulations of sand, and ships have to discharge by means of lighters. Legitimate trade has recently been neglected by the inhabitants, who find it more profitable to furnish slaves to the Alexandrian mar ket. The exports, which consist chiefly of sheep, wool, barley, wheat, butter, and salt, amounted in 1874 to 279,000, while the imports, of which the most important item is cloth goods, were valued at 162,600. Consuls are maintained at Bengazi by England and Italy, and France is represented by a vice-consul. The population, estimated in 1862 at 6000 or 7000, has since undergone various fluctuations, and suffered especially from an epidemic in 1872.  BENGEL,, a celebrated Biblical scholar and critic, was born at Winnenden, in Wiirtemberg, on the 24th June 1687. His father, who was one of the ministers of that town, having died when Bengel was only six years old, his education was taken in hand by a friend of his father named Spiudler, who having afterwards be come a master in the gymnasium at Stuttgart, carried the boy thither with him, and superintended his education until he entered the University of Tubingen in the year 1703. While at the university, the works to which, among others, he gave special attention as private studies were those of Aristotle and Spinoza, and so thoroughly did he make himself acquainted with the metaphysics of the latter, that he was selected by one of the professors to prepare materials for a treatise De Spinosismo which the pro fessor afterwards published. He himself used to express his &quot; great thankfulness for the benefit which he had de rived from the study of metaphysics and mathematics, in respect of the clearness of thought which they imparted, which was of the utmost value to him in the anatysis and exposition of the language of Scripture.&quot; After taking his degree, Bengel devoted himself to the study of theology, to which the grave and religious tone of his mind, deep ened and strengthened by his early training and discipline, naturally inclined him. Like other young men of thought ful character, before and since, he had to struggle with doubts and difficulties of a religious nature, and he alludes, with much feeling, to the &quot; many arrows which pierced his poor heart, and made his youth hard to bear.&quot; It is in teresting to know that at this early date his attention was directed to the various readings of the Greek New Testa ment, and that one cause of his mental perplexities was the difficulty of ascertaining the true reading among the great number of those which were presented to his notice. In 1707 Bengel entered the church, and was appointed to the parochial charge of Metzingen-unter-Urach. Here he remained only one year, and during that time devoted himself to the study of the writings of Spener, Arndt, A. H. Franke, and Chemnitz. The profound impression which the works of these men made upon his mind was never effaced, and may be traced in that vein of devotional, not to say-pietistic, feeling which runs through all his religious compositions. In 1708 Bengel was recalled to Tubingen to undertake the office of Kepetent or theological tutor. Here he remained until 1713, when he was appointed the head of a seminary recently established at Denkendorf and intended as a preparatory school of theology. Before entering on his duties there, he made a literary journey through the greater part of Germany, to acquaint himself with the various systems of education which -were in use, in order to qualify himself for the better discharge of his official duties. In prosecuting the journey he visited with laudable impartiality the seminaries of the Jesuits as well as those of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. Among other places he visited Heidelberg and Halle, and had his attention directed at the former city to the canons of Scrip ture criticism published by Gerhard von Mastricht, and at the latter to Vitringa s Anacrisis ad Apocalypsin. The in fluence exerted by these upon his theological studies will be apparent when we come to notice his works upon the criticism and interpretation of Scripture. For twenty- eight years from 1713-1741 he discharged his import ant duties as head of the school of Denkendorf with dis tinguished ability and success, devoting all his energies to the religious and intellectual improvement of his students. It is impossible to read the extracts from his diary and correspondence, which have been preserved, without being struck with the spirit of fervent piety, combined with sagacity and good sense, which characterized his manage ment of the institution. These twenty-eight years were the period of Bengel s greatest intellectual activity, many of the works on which his reputation rests being included within them. In 1741 he was appointed prelate of the cloister of Herbrechtingen, an office which he held for eight years. In 1749 he was raised to the dignity of consis- torial counsellor and prelate of Alpirsbach, with a residence in Stuttgart. Bengel henceforth devoted himself to the discharge of his duties as a member of the consistory. A question of considerable difficulty was at that time occu pying the attention of the church courts, viz., the manner in which those who separated themselves from the church were to be dealt with, and the amount of toleration which should be accorded to meetings held in private houses for the purpose of religious edification. The civil power (the duke of Wiirtemberg was a Roman Catholic) was disposed to have recourse to measures of repression, while the mem bers of the consistory, recognizing the good effects of such meetings, were inclined to concede a considerable degree of liberty. Bengel exerted himself on the side of the latter. The admirer of Spener, the founder of the collegia pietatis, could not but show himself favourably disposed to meetings held for religious purposes, and while main taining the rights and privileges of the church, he was an advocate for all reasonable freedom being accorded to those who felt themselves bound on grounds of conscience to withdraw from her communion. The good effects of this policy may be seen at this day in the attitude taken up by those who in Wiirtemberg have separated from the church. Bengel s public position necessarily brought him into contact with many individuals of celebrity, by whom he was consulted on all important theological and ecclesi astical questions. In a single year he received no fewer than 1200 letters. In the year 1751 the University of Tubingen, his own alma mater, conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity. Bengel s life was now drawing to a close. He died, after a short illness, in 1752, aged sixty-five years and four months. He himself is reported to have said, &quot; I shall be forgotten for a while, but I shall again come into remembrance ;&quot; and his favourite pupil Oetinger re marked of him, &quot; His like is not left in Wiirtemberg.&quot;

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