Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/865

Rh BOCHART,, a learned writer of the 17th century, specially distinguished as an Oriental scholar, was born at Rouen in Normandy, May 30, 1599. He was many years pastor of a Protestant church at Caen, and became tutor to Wentworth Dillon, earl of Roscommon, author of the Essay on Translated Verse. While at Caen he particularly distinguished himself by his public disputations with Father Veron, a Jesuit, and celebrated as a polemic. The dispute was held in the castle of Caen, in the presence of a great number of Catholics and Protestants, the duke of Longueville being among the former. In 1646 Bochart published his Phaleg and Chanaan, which are the titles of the two parts of his Geographia Sacra. His Hierozoicon, which treats of the sacred animals of Scripture, was printed at London in 1675, In 1652, Christina, queen of Sweden, invited him to Stockholm, whither he repaired, accompanied by Huet. On his return to Caen he resumed his duties as a minister of the gospel, married, and was received into the academy of that city. Bochart was a man of profound erudition; he possessed a thorough knowledge of the principal Oriental languages, including Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, and Arabic; and such was his zeal for extending his acquirements, that at an advanced age he wished to learn Ethiopic. He was remarkable for modesty and candour; but so absorbed was he in his favourite study, that he saw Phoenician, and nothing but Phoenician, in everything, even in the words of the Celtic, and hence the prodigious number of chimerical etymologies which swarm in his works. He died at Caen, May 16, 1667. A complete edition of his works was published at Leyden, under the title of ''Sam. Bochart Opera Omnia: hoc est; Pkaleg, Chanaan, seu Geographia Sacra, et Hierozoicon, seu de Animalibus sacris Sacrœ Scripture, et Dissertationes Variœ'', 1675, 2 vols. folio; 1692, 1712, 3 vols. folio.

 BOCHNIA, the chief town of a district in Austrian Galicia, on the River Raba or Uswica, a tributary of the Vistula. It is built principally of wood, and has a gymnasium, a hospital, and various public offices. Its importance is mainly due to its extensive salt mines, entrance to which is obtained by a shaft in the very heart of the town. The excavations, carried on at different levels, have completely undermined the whole area of the place, which was greatly damaged by a subsidence of the ground in 1843, occasioned by heavy floods. About 290,000 cwts. of salt are obtained annually. Population in 1869, 7480.}}

 BOCHUM, the chief town of a circle in the Prussian province of Westphalia and government of Arnsberg, on the railway between Duisburg and Dortmund. It is a busy industrial town, with manufactures of cassimeres, woollen cloth, carpets, and hardware of various descriptions. About 27,000 hand coffee-mills are turned out annually. There is an extensive steel factory in the hands of a company; coal-mines are worked, and coke is manufactured; and a considerable trade is carried on in grain. Population in 1871, 21,192.}}

 BODE,, a celebrated German astronomer, born January 19, 1747, at Hamburg, where his father kept a commercial academy. From his earliest years he was devoted to the mathematical sciences, especially astronomy. In the garret of his father's house, with the aid of a telescope constructed by himself, he eagerly made observations of the heavens; and at eighteen years of age he had acquired so great a knowledge of astronomy, that when Dr Reimarus visited his father, young Bode was found occupied in calculating an eclipse of the sun. This incident was the means of introducing him to the notice of Professor Biisch, who at once afforded him every facility for prosecuting his labours with success. Shortly afterwards Bode gave the first public proof of his knowledge by a short work on the solar eclipse of August 5, 1766; and this was followed by his Anteitung zur Kenntniss des gestirnten Himmels, an elementary treatise on astronomy, which was eminently successful, and has since gone through numerous editions. In 1772, being called to Berlin by Frederic II., he was made astronomer to the Academy of Sciences, and afterwards a member of that institution. The well-known periodical work entitled Astronomische Jahrbücher, which is continued to the present day, was commenced by Bode in 1774; but that on which his fame chiefly rests is the Uranographia, published in 1801, in which the industrious author has given observations of 17,240 stars, or 12,000 more than are to be found in any older charts. This veteran observer, who may justly be said to have been the first to diffuse a general taste for astronomy in Germany, died at Berlin, Nov. 23, 1826. For the curious empirical law which bears Bode's name, see,. .

 BODIN,, one of the ablest political thinkers in France during the 16th century, was born at Angers in 1530. He studied law at Toulouse, and, after taking his degree, lectured there for some time on jurisprudence. Thence he proceeded to Paris, and began to practise at the bar. His want of success is said to have been the reason of his applying himself to literature; but this we may reasonably doubt, as he was only twenty-five years of age when he published his first work, a translation of Oppian's Cynegeticon into Latin verse, with a commentary. Almost immediately on its publication the celebrated scholar, Turnebus, complained that some of his emendations had been appropriated without acknowledgment. A discourse on public instruction, Oratio de Instituenda in Republica Juventute, which Bodin had delivered at Toulouse, was printed in 1559, and his Methodus ad Facilem Historiarum Cognitionem appeared in 1566. The latter is a work of considerable interest and value. It has, indeed, no title to the high honour which M. Baudrillart assigns to it of having laid the foundation of the philosophy of history; but it contains several thoughts of essential importance to that philosophy, as, for example, those relative to the nature of history, to progress and law in history, and to historical causation. Two years later Bodin published a work in refutation of the views of M. de Malestroict, who maintained that there had been no rise of prices in France during the three preceding centuries. The Responsio ad Paradoxa Malestretti not only completely established the contrary, but for the first time explained in a nearly satisfactory manner the revolution of prices which took place in the 16th century, pointing out not only its primary but most of its secondary causes with remarkable perspicacity. This tract, the Discours sur les causes de l'extrème cherté qui est aujourdhuy en France (1574), and the disquisition on public revenues in the sixth book of the Republic, undoubtedly entitle Bodin to a distinguished position among the earlier cultivators of political economy. His learning, genial disposition, and conversational powers recommended him to the favour of Henry III. and of his brother, the duke of Alençon. The former appointed him to the office of king's attorney at Laon in 1576. This was the most eventful year of his life, being that in which he married, performed his most brilliant service to his country, and completed his greatest literary work. Elected by the Tiers État of Vermandois to represent it in the states-general of Blois, he contended with great skill and boldness in extremely difficult circumstances for freedom of con science, justice, and peace. The nobility and clergy favoured the League, and urged the king to force his subjects to abjure Protestantism and profess the Catholic religion. When Bodin found he could not prevent this