Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/485

BEC prayed for his success, and the desponding artist, one winter's night that he fell asleep over his drawings, heard a voice say, "Awake, take the log burning before thee on the hearth, and shape the wished-for image." He did so, and it grew into an excellent work under his thoughtful chisel; beauty, tenderness, love, constancy, and resignation were on its features. He also carved crucifixes, entombments, skeletons, and infant saviours, for various churches. His finest works are a beautiful little St. Sebastian at Burgos, and the high altar of the cathedral of Astorga. His paintings are rare—there are none in the Escurial, but one of a sibyl in the heritage at St. Petersburg, and four drawings in the Louvre. He sketched in red and black chalk, and made cartoons of the full size for all he painted. Pacheco and Bermudez rank him above Berreguete.—(See Stiring's learned Annals of the Artists of Spain.)—W. T.  BECERRIL,, his brother , and , the son of the latter, were celebrated silversmiths of Cuença, who, working from 1528 to 1573 for the love of God, built up a gorgeous "Custodia" for the cathedral of their town. It cost seventeen thousand ducats, and forty-five years' work, and is a florid three-storied edifice, enriched with statues, veiling an inner shrine of jewelled gold. In the war of Independence, General Caulaincourt, without respect for art or religion, broke it up with a strong hand, and coined it into five-franc pieces.—W. T.  BECHADA,, a poet, native of Limousin, author of a poem entitled "La Conquête de Jerusalem," that has not come down to us. He is mentioned by Geoffry, abbe of Vigeois.  BECHAUD,, a French general of brigade, born in 1770, was killed at the battle of Orthez in 1814.  BECHE,. See.  BECHER,, the son of a German Lutheran preacher, born at Speier in 1635, was compelled, after the early death of his father, to support his family by teaching. He nevertheless obtained an extraordinary knowledge of medicine, chemistry, and physics; and having gone over to the Roman catholic religion, apparently from interested motives, became professor in Mayence, and afterwards physician to the prince-archbishop. At a later period he removed to Munich, where he established a large laboratory at the expense of the Bavarian government. Soon after this he made his appearance in Vienna, where he seems to have been high in the favour of the minister Zinsendorf, who procured for him the title of Hofrath, and a post at the college of commerce. In this high position he drew up plans for carrying on manufactures on a grand scale, and occupied himself with the establishment of an Austrian company for trading with the East Indies. After a time, however, he fell into some disgrace, and found it advisable to escape from the imperial city under cloud of night. In 1662 he reached Haarlem, where he resided for some time, and then removed to England. Here he occupied himself with large mining operations, and died in 1682, not without some suspicions of his having hastened his own end. During his successful early career, Becher appears to have had many enemies, and he was accused, perhaps not without some justice, of quackery. He has, however, rendered permanent service to chemistry, which he first endeavoured to reduce to a scientific form. This is the object of his most important work, entitled "Physica Subterranea," first published at Frankfort in 1664, and of which several editions were subsequently brought out, one of them as lately as 1742. He endeavoured to establish the existence of a fundamental acid, of which all others are merely varieties. Every metal, according to him, consists of an earthy matter common to all, of a combustible matter, and a peculiar mercurial substance. When the metal is heated, so as to change its external form, the mercurial substance is set free, and all that remains is the metallic calx. This is the first germ of the phlogistic theory of chemistry, which was subsequently so widely disseminated by Stahl, and which was generally received until the discovery of oxygen by Lavoisier. To Becher, with Boyle in England and Lemery in France, is also due the praise of having cast off the mystical style and language which had been adopted from the Arab writers by the alchemists. Besides the one above-mentioned, Becher published numerous works upon a variety of subjects; thus we have—"Character pro notitia linguarum Universali," 1661; "Methodus didactica super Novum Organum Philologicum," 1674; "Metallurgia," 1661; "Institutiones Chemicæ," 1662; "Parnassus Medicinalis," 1663; "Experimentum Chymicum Novum," 1671; "Chymische Glückshafen," 1682; and "De nova temporis metiendi Ratione," 1680, published in London. A number of smaller memoirs were also published at Nuremberg in 1719.—W. S. D.  * BECHER,, an Austrian statesman and political economist, was born in Bohemia in 1806. While professor of geography and commercial history at Vienna, he attracted the notice of Dobelhof, who appointed him secretary-general to the ministry. He is the author of a number of statistical works.  BECHSTEIN,, a distinguished German naturalist, was born on the 11th July, 1757, at Waltershausen, a small town in Saxe-Gotha, where his father exercised the calling of a blacksmith and armourer. The young Bechstein was brought up strictly enough in his father's house, but received only an imperfect education in the school of his native town. His father's love for the forest and field was soon communicated to the child, and in his earliest years he knew no greater pleasure than to spend his leisure hours in the forest, seeking for remarkable natural objects, or shooting birds with a blowing tube. In this way he soon became acquainted with all the treasures of nature which were to be met with within a circle of several miles round his dwelling-place. At the gymnasium at Gotha, to which he went in his fourteenth year, and at the university of Jena, where he commenced his theological studies in the year 1778, he still retained this love for nature, and continued his devotion to field sports. In 1780 he left the university, and in January, 1782, offered himself as a candidate for examination at Gotha. About the same time he made the acquaintance of C. G. Salzmann, who had just established his school at Schnepfenthal, an acquaintance that was of the greatest importance to him. Salzmann was at the head of one of the schools which had then just become popular in Germany, and which, under the name of Philanthropins, were expected to effect an entire change in the system of education. Bechstein was appointed teacher of natural history and mathematics in the new Philanthropin established by Salzmann, a part of his duties consisting in teaching the elder pupils the use of the gun. By Salzmann's advice, however, before entering upon his duties, he made a tour to the original Philanthropin which had been set up in Dessau in 1774, and to a similar institution in Leipzig, where he made himself acquainted with the methods of instruction there pursued. On his return to his native country he studied ornithology most energetically, observing the mode of life, voice, flight, nests, migrations, and eggs of birds, their food and manners, both when free and in captivity; but, neverthless, finding that the existing handbooks were not satisfactory, he prepared his own treatises on natural history and mathematics for the school at Schnepfenthal, and these subsequently furnished the foundations for several of his educational writings. At this time, also, he commenced his literary labours, his first efforts consisting of communications to periodicals, especially to the Boten aus Thuringen published by Salzmann, in which he wrote all the articles on natural history and agriculture. His first independent work was his "Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands," of which the first volume was published at Leipzig in 1789, and about the same time, in conjunction with his colleague, André, he commenced the publication of a work under the title of "Gemeinnützige Spaziergänge auf alle Tage im Jähre, für Eltern, Hofmeister, Jugendlehrer, Erzieher," &c. These works were received with great favour; their author was elected a member of several scientific societies in different parts of Germany, and received the most flattering testimonies of appreciation from other quarters. The princess of Lippe-Bückeburg, to whom he dedicated his writings, appointed him a councillor of mines. Encouraged by the high estimation in which he was now held, Bechstein proceeded to develope a plan which he had long cherished in his heart, that of improving the sciences connected with the forest and the chase, by the establishment of an independent educational institution. With this view he prepared a new theoretical and practical plan of education, for an institute which might be called a Forest Academy, and sent it in to the government at Gotha. But the unsettled state of affairs at that time, together with other unfavourable circumstances, prevented any notice being taken of it, and Bechstein accordingly determined on carrying out his plans with his own private resources. He established his academy in a house with lands in the immediate vicinity of Waltershausen, his native place; the instructions commenced in the summer of 1794, and in the spring of 1795, <section end="485Zcontin" />