Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/491

BEC papers, among which may be noticed, "La Distribution du magnetisme libre dans les fils microscopiques de platine et d'acier;" "Les actions magnetiques ou actions analogues produites dans tous les corps par l'influence de courants electriques tres-energiques;" "L'action de la force aimantée sur-tous les corps;" "Les Phenomenes thermo-electriques." These interesting researches were the occasion of his discovering a method of determining the temperature of the interior parts of the bodies of men and animals without producing sensible lesion. He made numerous physiological applications of this method, and demonstrated that in the contraction of a muscle there is a disengagement of heat. M. Becquerel was elected in 1829 a member of the Academie des Sciences, an honour to which, as one of the founders of electro-chemistry, he was amply entitled. He was also chosen a member of the Royal Society of London, who in 1837 awarded to him Copley's medal. This last honour was bestowed on him in consideration of his successful application of the new science of electro-chemistry to the reproduction of mineral substances, such as aluminium, silicium, glucium, the metallic sulphurs, &c. The object that he had principally in view as an electro-chemist, was to establish the relations of the affinities of bodies and their electric forces, and to excite the first by means of the second. Among his other labours may be noticed his researches on the electrical conductibility of metals, on galvanometers, on atmospherical electricity, on the electromagnetic balance, and on the employment of marine salt in agriculture. He published, besides the special memoirs abovementioned, "Traité de l'electricite et du magnetisme," 7 vols., 1834-40; "Traité d' Electro-chimie;" "Traité de Physique considerée dans ses rapports avec la chimie et les sciences naturelles;" and "Des climats, et de l'influence des sols boisés et deboisés."—(Nouv. Biog. Gen.)—J. S., G.  * BECQUEREL,, eldest son of Antoine Cesar, was born at Paris in 1814. He took his degrees in medecine in 1841, was named chevalier of the legion of honour in 1845, and since 1851 has occupied the post of physician to the hospital of St. Perrine. His principal productions are "Recherches cliniques sur la meningite des enfants," 1835; "Séméiotique des urines ou Traité des signes fournis par les urines dans les maladies," 1841; and "Traité du begaiement, et des moyens de le guerir," 1844.—(Nouv. Biog. Gen.)—J. S., G.  BECRI-MUSTAPHA, or, a favourite of the Sultan Amurath IV., whose companion he was in his drunken revelries, lived in the first half of the seventeenth century. He was not destitute either of wisdom or courage, but became one of the sultan's sagest counsellors, and was distinguished by his bravery at the sieges of Erivan and of Bagdad. He died some years before his master.—G. M.  BECZKOWSKI, J. F., a Bohemian historian of high reputation, was born at Deutschbrod in 1658. He was a man of great industry; and, amidst other engrossing occupations, collected a vast amount of original materials for the continuation of Hagek's history. He also wrote some biographies, and left many valuable manuscripts. He died early in the eighteenth century.  BEDA, commonly called the, was born at a village near Sunderland, in that part of the kingdom of Bernicia which now forms the county of Durham, in the year 673. Of his parents we know nothing beyond the fact, that they were of humble station. When only seven years old, Bede was placed under the care of Benedict Biscop, abbot of St. Peter's monastery at Wearmouth. This, and the neighbouring monastery of St. Paul's at Jarrow, near the Tyne, had been recently founded by Benedict Biscop, and endowed, among other things, with a large collection of books which he had brought from Italy and other countries. Shortly afterwards Bede was removed to Jarrow, and placed under the care of Abbot Ceolfrid, a man of great learning and piety. From this time till his death in 735 he remained an inmate of the same monastery, seldom in fact going outside its walls. Writing in 731, he says (after mentioning his being committed to the care of Ceolfrid at Jarrow), "Spending all the remaining time of my life in that monastery, I wholly applied myself to the meditation of Scripture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline" (Jarrow was a Benedictine house), "and the daily care of singing in the church, always took delight in either learning, or teaching, or writing." He was ordained deacon in 691 and priest in 702, on each occasion by St. John of Beverley. After he was ordained priest he began to devote himself to literary pursuits; in the first place copying out manuscripts, next translating and collecting the comments of the fathers on the holy scriptures, with additions of his own, and lastly, undertaking original composition. His uneventful life affords little scope for the office of the biographer; yet could we form a distinct picture in the imagination of the manner in which the tranquil days of the Saxon monk, divided between labour, prayer, and praise, passed away, the spectacle would, perhaps, rivet our gaze not less than the shining but stormy course of an Athanasius or a Hildebrand. Let us conceive him, then, as rising to matins with the rest of the brotherhood; as then betaking himself to his own cell for prayer and meditation; next as singing the conventual mass (whence Alfred styles him mass-priest); after which would probably come the morning meal, followed by manual labour, which was incumbent on all the monks, including even the abbot himself. Bede himself relates of Benedict Biscop, that, when abbot, "he, like the rest of the brothers, used to winnow the corn and thrash it, to give milk to the lambs and calves; in the bakehouse, in the garden, in the kitchen, and in the other employments of the monastery, cheerful and obedient, delighted to exercise himself." Then, perhaps, came the school, in which he gave regular instruction to his fellow-monks, 600 in number. Many of his pupils became eminent for learning and sanctity. The celebrated Alcuin has been sometimes reckoned among them, but there is no positive testimony to assure us of the fact. And when the daily duties towards his neighbour had been fully performed, we may conceive of him, as seated in the library, or the scriptorium of the convent, amidst his much-loved books, copying, commenting, or composing—not in any feverish haste to gain fame for himself, but having the single wish and idea in all his labours to glorify God by edifying his church. The literary result of this pious diligence is truly marvellous, considering the limited extent, after all, of the sources of his information, and the nearly total want of that stimulus which is given by the emulation of cultivated minds and the comparison of ideas. Besides numerous volumes of commentaries on holy scripture and other theological works, Bede wrote treatises on the philosophy of Aristotle, on natural philosophy, astronomy, arithmetic, grammar, rhetoric, poetry, ecclesiastical history, and the lives of the saints. Of his character as an author we shall speak presently. The declining years of Bede fell in a brief period of sunshine amidst the storms of perpetual war, which desolated for four hundred years the kingdoms of the heptarchy. Writing in 731 he tells us that he finishes his "Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation," which he had originally undertaken at the request of Ceolwulf, king of Northumbria, in a time of profound peace, when the Northumbrians had begun to lay aside their weapons, and many were exchanging the pursuits of war for the service of God in the monastic state. His death occurred, as we have said, in 735. The well-known letter of the monk Cuthbert to his friend Cuthwin, describes, in minute detail, the last scenes of his pure and peaceful life, and as a genuine monument of the thoughts and manner of life of religious men in the eighth century, is profoundly interesting. We must confine ourselves here to one or two brief extracts. Before Easter of the year 735, Bede appears to have been much troubled with asthma. "He continued," says Cuthbert, "giving thanks to Almighty God every day and night, nay, every hour, till the feast of the Ascension of our Lord, and daily read lessons to us, his disciples, and whatever remained of the day he spent in singing of psalms." He often repeated "that God scourges every son whom He receives." His last words were a Gloria Patri: "When he had named the Holy Ghost he breathed his last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom." His remains were buried in St. Paul's church at Jarrow, but removed in 1020 to Durham cathedral, and placed, at first in the shrine of St. Cuthbert, and a century later in a rich shrine provided for them by Bishop Hugh. No inscription is now found on his tomb, but it is believed that his relics were not disturbed at the Reformation. The extraordinary merits of Bede were early recognized. The title "Venerable," according to Mabillon, began to be given to him in the ninth century; he is thus designated by the second council of Aix-la-Chapelle, which sat in 836. King Alfred translated his Ecclesiastical History into Anglo-Saxon, and Lanfranc styles him "the doctor and father of the English." Among Bede's works, that which is best known, and deservedly so, is his Ecclesiastical History above referred to. His theological works have no great claim to originality, and his speculations 