Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/877

BUT sixteenth year, however, he examined the controversy for himself, and the result was that he became a protestant. Two years after this Butler entered Trinity college, Dublin. In 1832 he obtained a scholarship. While still in his undergraduate course he contributed largely to the periodical literature of the day. The Dublin University Magazine was just then launched, and round it the genius and the learning of the young Irish spirits clustered with loving industry. Among the ablest was Butler. His poetical contributions attracted notice, and helped to give that periodical the high reputation for poetry which it has ever since retained. His refined taste in criticism and his elegance of diction made him an able and popular reviewer, and some of his essays on history and philosophy still rank high in the estimation of scholars. In November, 1835, Butler obtained the first ethical moderatorship at his degree examination—a prize then for the first time instituted. Just at the time his scholarship determined, Dr. Lloyd, the provost of Trinity college, estimating the extraordinary abilities of Butler, succeeded in founding a professorship of moral philosophy, and he who was the first to gain an ethical moderatorship in the college, was also the first to fill the professor's chair. The young professor was now upon a field worthy his endowments. His lectures were as remarkable for their eloquence, as for their profound philosophy. The living of Clondehorka in the county of Donegal was presented to him with the chair of moral philosophy. This preferment he held till 1842, discharging with zeal and faithfulness the duties of a parish priest, in a wild and poor district. In the last-mentioned year he was re-elected to the professorship, and promoted to the rectory of Raymoghy in the diocese of Raphoe, where he spent a large portion of the rest of his life in unwearied parochial ministrations, and in literary, religions, and philosophic study. During the year 1845 the Roman catholic controversy deeply engaged his attention, the result of which was his "Letters on Mr. Newman's Theory of Development," which were pronounced by the most eminent divines to be "models and masterpieces of polemical composition." In 1848 he was employed on a work on Faith, and in collecting materials for it, he was engaged during the short period of his life that remained. On Trinity Sunday, 1848, he preached with his usual power the ordination sermon for the bishop of Derry at Dunboe. On his return home the following Friday, he was seized with fever, induced by a chill after being heated with walking. The progress of the malady was rapid and fatal, and he died on the 5th of July, ere he had reached the age of thirty-six.

As a poet he was tender, imaginative, refined, and classical, and won the commendation of so severe a judge as Professor Wilson. As a preacher his eloquence was of the highest order—passionate without rant, affluent in all the grace of figure and illustration, yet comprehensible to the most ordinary intelligence. As an ethical philosopher, he attained to a deservedly high repute, considering the few years he was permitted to devote to so arduous a study; and the lectures which he delivered and the essays which he has left are characterized as well by the soundness of their views and brilliancy of their rhetoric, as by the elegance and classicality of a style which is nevertheless eminently practical and often thoroughly simple.—J. F. W.  BUTRET,, baron de, a French horticulturist, died at Strasburg in 1805. He belonged to a noble family, and devoted himself in a great measure to agricultural pursuits. In 1794 he published a work entitled "Taille raisonée des arbres fruitiers." He established at Strasburg a large horticultural garden, which he intended as a model school for the culture of forest trees. The French revolution interrupted his labours, and compelled him to emigrate. He found an asylum in the court of the elector palatine, who intrusted to him the direction of his gardens.—J. H. B.  BUTTMANN,, a distinguished German philologist, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, December 7, 1764, and died at Berlin, June 21, 1829. He devoted himself to the study of ancient languages at the university of Göttingen, and in 1796 obtained an appointment as secretary, and afterwards sub-librarian at the royal library at Berlin. At the same time he discharged the duties of professor of the Greek language in the Joachimsthal'sche Gymnasium in 1808; and edited the Haude und Spener'sche Zeitung from 1803-11. Among his works, the "Griechische Grammatik;" the "Ausführliche Griechische Sprachlehre;" and the "Lexilogus oder Beiträge zur Griechischen Worterklärung," &c., take the highest rank, and for exactness and nicety of observation and treatment will always be held in high esteem. No less praise is due to his editions of Plato's Dialogi Quatuor, of Demosthenes' Midiana, and Aratus' Phænomena et Diosemia. His contributions to Wolfs Museum der Alterthumswissenchaft, and other learned periodicals, were collected under the title "Mythologus."—K. E.  BUTTNER,, a German botanist, was born in 1724, and died in 1768. He succeeded Huller in the chair of botany at Göttingen. His name is kept up in the genus Buttneria or Byttneria. He devoted his attention specially to the classification of plants and the arrangements of the natural orders. In 1750 he published at Amsterdam a methodical enumeration of plants.—J. H. B.  BUTTON,, an English navigator of skill and experience, acquired considerable reputation in the service of Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James I. Scarcely anything, however, appears to be known of him beyond his connection with the search after a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and the conduct of a voyage which he undertook for its discovery. This voyage was made a year after that of the unfortunate Henry Hudson. The merchant adventurers of London fitted out two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure, for the further prosecution of discovery in this quarter, and placed them under Captain Button's command. They sailed in May, 1612, steering their course through Hudson Strait, and thence to the westward. Button was the first navigator who crossed the entire extent of Hudson Bay from east to west. He reached the mainland on the west side of the bay, in latitude 60° 40´, at a spot to which he gave the name of Hopes Checked; and proceeding thence to the southward, discovered the mouth of Nelson river, (upon which the chief station of the Hudson Bay Company was afterwards formed), where he wintered. Upon leaving their winter quarters, the ships proceeded as far to the northward as lat. 65°, along the west side of Southampton island, when, seeing no opening which afforded the means of a passage to the west, though with undiminished confidence in the existence of such a passage on Button's own part, they repassed Hudson Strait, and returned to England in the autumn of 1613. Button was knighted on his return.—W. H.  BUTTURA,, was born at Malcesina, on the lake of Garda, in 1771. He studied at Verona, where he made himself favourably known by the publication of a collection of sonnets and odes. In the stormy times of the Revolution he was one of its most enthusiastic advocates, and declaring himself strongly for French rule in Italy, attracted the attention of Napoleon, who appointed him secretary to the congress of Venice. Having been appointed first secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, he left Italy for Paris, where he remained till his death in 1832. He published very accurate and elegant editions of many of the best Italian writers, particularly poets; translations from the French of Boileau and Racine; an "Essay on the History of Venice;" and an "Italian and French Dictionary."—A. C. M.  BUTURLIN,, a celebrated Russian writer on military science and history, born at St. Petersburg in 1790. He served in the campaigns of 1812-14, and in 1819 he rose to the rank of major-general. The greater number of the military writings of Buturlin are in French; those most widely known are "The History of the Italian Campaign of 1799;" a "Sketch of the German Campaign of 1813;" and a "History of Napoleon's Russian Campaign." He died, October 21, 1850.—M. Q.  BUXBAUM,, a German botanist, was born at Merseburg in 1694, and died in 1730. In 1724 he went to St. Petersburg, and became a professor in the university. He made botanical tours in various parts of Russia, visiting also Siberia and Astracan. In 1726 he went to Turkey, and examined the flora of that country. He died at the early age of thirty-six. A genus of mosses has been called Buxbaumia, and a species of veronica is denominated Buxbaumii. He published an enumeration of the plants of Halle, also an account of the plants in the Byzantine provinces.—J. H. B. <section end="877H" /> <section begin="877Zcontin" />BÜXHOWDEN,, born in 1752 of a noble Livonian family at Magnusdal in the island of Moon, near Oesel. He entered the Russian service as a cadet, and served in the campaign of 1769. He rose to a generalship in 1790; defeated the Swedish generals Hamilton and Majenfeld, and liberated the fortress of Friedrieksham, at Wiborg, from its besiegers. Catherine II. gave him the estate of Magnusdal. As general-of-division, in 1794, he distinguished himself at the <section end="877Zcontin" />