Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/539

BEN of the traces laid up within us according; to certain well-defined laws, then ought the educator to hold the soul of the pupil in his hand, like clay in the hands of the potter, and to add brick to brick to the structure, with the most assured certitude of the result. Estimated impartially, we must admit that there is a vast deal of acute analysis in Beneke's principles; and that many most valuable suggestions are thrown out by him in relation to the laws and methods of mental development. Like all enthusiastic systematizers, however, he appears to us to be too essentially one-sided to represent the whole truth of the case. The superstructure of those older psychological systems, which regard the human mind as consisting of an aggregation of abstract and peculiar faculties, crumbles absolutely to pieces in his hands, and the truth comes to light perhaps more clearly than ever it did before, that the human soul is an organic unity, which develops from stage to stage, and throws out fresh and more advanced phenomena in every step of its progress. But he has apparently gone quite to an extreme on the other side, in denying any primordial instincts, tendencies, impulses, or desires of a distinctive character, and deducing them all from the greater or less intensity with which the soul, by virtue of its original structure, apprehends or retains the influences which act upon it from without. Still, as all progress in human thought is ordinarily promoted by the alternate development of opposing theories, we may regard Beneke as being one, and one too of the most remarkable amongst the promoters of more correct views, both in psychology and pedagogy, and may recommend his works as indispensable to every one who wishes thoroughly to understand what has been accomplished in these two most interesting departments of human thought.—J. D. M.  BENEKENDORF,, a writer on rural and political economy, whose works at one time enjoyed a high popularity, was born at Blumenfeldt in Brandenburg in 1720. He also; wrote "Memoirs of Frederic Wilhelm I.," a work of much interest and merit. He died in 1788.—J. F. W.  BENETTI,, an Italian physician, born at Ferrara on 3d February, 1658. He took his degree of doctor of medicine at Ferrara when only twenty-two years of age, and very soon afterwards was appointed to the chair of practical medicine in that university. His lectures acquired him great celebrity. In 1687 he was appointed physician to the hospital of Santa Anna; a few years afterwards, the town of Fano, in the duchy of Urbino, gave him the appointment of stipendiary physician; and about the same time the Duke of Mantua, Ferdinand-Charles, conferred upon him the post of first physician. The date of his death is not known. His only work, entitled "Corpus Medico-Morale," &c., published at Mantua in 1718, contains all those medical precepts which might have some application to the ceremonies of the Roman catholic religion, and gives us but a low opinion of his title to the fame which he enjoyed in his lifetime.—W. S. D.  BENEVOLI,, a celebrated Italian surgeon of the first half of the eighteenth century, was born in 1685 at Castello delle Preci in the duchy of Spoleto. On the death of his father, which took place when he was very young, he was brought up by his uncle, Geronimo Accorondoni, who sent him, at the age of nine years, to study at Florence. After passing through the ordinary course of instruction, he studied anatomy and surgery under T. Pacini and A. Querci. His progress was so rapid that he soon acquired a great reputation as an operator, especially in two branches of surgery to which he particularly applied himself; namely, the treatment of ruptures and of diseases of the eyes. In 1719 Cosmo III., grand-duke of Tuscany, assigned him a pension. His reputation was increased by a successful operation which he performed upon the Cardinal Buoncompagni, archbishop of Bologna, to relieve him from a cataract with which he was afflicted. After the death of Santorelli, he was appointed oculist to the hospital of Santa Maria, and in 1755 became chief surgeon in that great establishment, where he afterwards delivered public lectures. which attracted numerous audiences. The principal writings of Benevoli are, "Lettere sopra due osservazioni fatte intorno al cataratta," Florence, 1722, and "Tre dissertazioni dell' origine dell' ernia intestinale, &c.," published at Florence in 1747. The former of these consists of letters addressed to Valsalva, who is referred to as a judge of the different opinions but forward with regard to cataracts. The author himself attributed this disease to the opacity of the crystalline lens, without, however, asserting that it might not sometimes be caused by a membrane lodged in the anterior part of the aqueous chamber of the eye. He was attacked by Giovanni Bianchi, under the false name of Pietro Paolo Lupi, and a considerable controversy was got up between them, which was certainly of little benefit to science. The second of the above-mentioned works, of which a Dutch translation was published at the Hague in 1770, contains numerous excellent and valuable observations, although the theoretical parts are of little importance. The observations brought together at the close of the volume, upon various facts in surgery and anatomy, are also curious and interesting.—W. S. D.  BENEVOLI,, a musician, a natural son of Albert, duke of Lorraine, was born at Rome in 1602, where he died in 1672. He was the pupil of Vincenzo Ugolini, whom he succeeded in the office of maestro di capella of the church of St. Luigi de Francesi, in his native city. He left this appointment for one under the archduke of Austria at Vienna, where, in 1643 and the two following years, he produced some motets and offertories. He returned to Rome in 1646, and was reinstated in his original situation; he was also appointed to the same office in the church of S. Maria Maggiore, and at the close of this year, was instituted likewise maestro di capella of St. Peters. His distinction as a composer rests upon the multiplicity of real parts in his scores, he having written for two, three, four, five, and six distinct choirs, of four voices in each, as Agostino had already done with success, this being a form of composition greatly esteemed in that age of artifice and laborious complexity. M. Fètis cites a Mass of his composition, written in forty-eight separate parts, which, at the cost of Dominico Fonthia, a notary, was performed at St. Peters, August 4, 1650, by a hundred and fifty voices, as a propitiation against the pestilence then raging in Rome; but Burney sneaks of this same work as in his own possession, describing it to be in twenty-four parts, stating the number of executants on this occasion to have been above two hundred, and representing the six choirs at its performance to have been ranged in as many circles round the dome, the last being stationed at the top of the cupola. His fugal writing is less remarkable for the development of his subjects than for the purity of his counterpoint, and the effective responses of his several groups of voices. The chief of his works are preserved in the library of the Vatican, and in that of the Casa Corsini. Some specimens of his composition have been printed by Padre Mantini and by Padre Paolucci The most distinguished of his pupils was G. Ercole Bernabei.—G. A. M.  BENEZECH,, the son of an engraver, known for his historical portraits. Painted the "Execution of Louis XVI.," and died in 1794.—W. T.  BENEZET,, a man of colour, and one of the earliest advocates of the emancipation of the negroes, born at Saint-Quentin in 1713. In 1715 his family being compelled to quit France on account of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, took up their residence in London. In 1731 they removed to New England, and established themselves in Philadelphia. Here Benezet formed the resolution of devoting himself to the instruction of the blacks, and the amelioration of their condition. In 1762 he published a work on the subject of negro slavery, and in 1767 another work on the same subject, particularly with reference to the miserable condition of the slaves in the British colonies. He also founded at Philadelphia a school for the instruction of people of colour.—G. M.  BENFATTO,, born at Verona, a nephew of the great Veronese, the most epic of all mere decorative painters. "The History of St. Nicholas" was his best work. Died in 1641. <section end="539H" /> <section begin="539I" />* BENFEY,, a German philologist, was born at Nörten, near Göttingen, 28th January, 1809, and studied at the gymnasium and university of this latter town, where, in 1834, he was appointed professor of Sanscrit and comparative philology. Besides his "Griechisches Wurzel-Lexicon," Berlin, 1839-42, 2 vols., to which the Volney prize was awarded by the Academy of Sciences at Paris, he has published—"Uber das Verhältniss der ägyptischen Sprache zum semitischen Sprachstamm;" "Handbuch der Sanscrit-Sprache," 1852, 2 vols., &c.—K. E. <section end="539I" /> <section begin="539J" />BENGEL,, a grandson of Johann Albr. B., was born at Favelstein (Wurtemberg) 1769, and died at Tübingen, 1826, where he had held several high offices. He edited the Archiv für Theologi und ihre neuest Literatur, and wrote some theological works.—K. E. <section end="539J" /> <section begin="539Zcontin" />BENGEL,, a celebrated theologian, was born at Winnenden, in the duchy of Wurtemburg, on the 24th June, <section end="539Zcontin" />