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 242 BALL BALLANTYNE and its western continuation ; area, nearly ' 30,000 sq. ra. ; pop. about 1,000,000, chiefly i Uzbecks. The southern part is rocky, but has many fine valleys ; the eastern is mountainous, but less barren than the western and northern parts. Its inhabitants comprise both peaceful and warlike tribes. Many are engaged in the caravan trade between Russia, China, and In- dia; others are mechanics and agriculturists. Balkh formerly included Koondooz, Khooloom, and other districts which have now become separate governments. It formed part of Ca- j bool, and after the fall of the Durrani dynasty j came into the hands of the ruler of Bokhara. In 1850 it was conquered by Dost Mohammed, and the widow of Feis Mohammed of Balkh furnished in 1867 funds to Shere All for gath- ering a considerable army. In 1871 a treaty was concluded which fixed the upper Oxus as a boundary line between Afghanistan and Bo- khara, Balkh belonging again to the former gov- ernment, though in an unsettled condition and virtually ruled by Russian influence. II. A city (anc. Bactra), capital of the preceding country, in lat. 36 48' N., Ion. 67 18' E., on the Balkh or Dehaz river, a tributary of the Oxus, 250 m. S. E. of Bokhara and 180 m. N. W. of Oabool ; pop. about 2,000. Its origin is associated with Kaimurs, the mythical founder of a Persian dynasty, and it flourished as the capital of a Greek kingdom under the succes- sors of Alexander the Great. (See BAOTBIA.) Devastated by Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Na- dir Shah, and others, and deprived of most of its former commerce since the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, it has lost its splendor, traces of which, however, linger in ruins ex- tending over 20 m., and it is still called by the natives the mother of cities. BALL, Game of. See BASE BALL. BALL, John, an English fanatical preacher in the reign of Richard II., executed at Coventry in 1381. He was a priest who had been re- peatedly excommunicated for preaching "er- rors and schisms, and scandals against the pope, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy;" and when Wycliffe began to preach he adopted some of that reformer's doctrines and engrafted them on his own. He joined Wat Tyler's re- bellion in 1381, and at Blackheath preached to a hundred thousand of the insurgents a violent democratic sermon on the text, When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman 1 His sermons and letters contributed greatly to spread the insurrection. After the death of Wat he was seized with others of the leaders and either beheaded or hanged. BALL, Thomas, an American sculptor, born in Charlestown, Mass., June 3, 1819. He was originally a portrait painter in Boston, but about 1852 began to devote himself exclusively to modelling. His first production in the plas- tic art was a miniature bust of Jenny Lind, which was soon followed by a life-size bust of Daniel Webster, esteemed an excellent likeness. After executing a life-size statue of the same statesman he passed several years in Europe, and upon his return to Boston received a com- mission for an equestrian statue of Washington, which was cast in bronze by the Ames manu- facturing company at Chicopee, Mass,, and placed in the public garden of Boston in 1868. He revisited Europe in 1865, passing some time in Rome and Florence. His remaining works include a bust of Rufus Choate, statuettes of Webster, Lincoln, and Clay, a life-size statue of Edward Everett (in the Boston public library), a statue of Edwin Forrest in the character of Coriolanus, one of Eve, and a number of ideal busts and statues. In 1871 his statue of Gov. Andrew of Massachusetts was placed in the state house at Boston. BALLANCHE, Pierre Simon, a French writer and philosopher, born in Lyons in 1776, died in Paris, June 12, 1847. He first followed the trade of his father, who was a bookseller and a printer. In 1801 he published Du senti- ment considers dans ses rapports avec la litte- rature et les arts. In 1814 appeared his histor- ical novel Antigone, and subsequently an Etsai sur les institutions saddles dans leurs rapports a/vec les idees nouvelles, in which he sought to reconcile national tradition with the progres- sive law of modern society. These works made little impression upon the general public; but Ms L'homme sans nom (1820), a novel which bitterly denounced some old revolution- ary leaders, was more successful. After this publication Ballanche, who had previously re- moved to Paris, devoted himself to purely speculative studies. In spite of their abstruse- ness, his subsequent works were eagerly sought for. In Orphee he symbolically expounded the way in which every great social evolution must be accomplished. The Prolegomenes, which serve as an introduction to Orphee, and his great work Palingenesie sociale, contain a full exposition of his prophetic and mystical theo- ries. These theories are summed up, though not made more intelligible, in La vision d'He- bal, chef d'un clan ecossais, which was his last publication. He was much respected by Cha- teaubriand and Mme. K6camier. BALLANTVJIE. I. James, a Scottish printer, born at Kelso in 1772, died in Edinburgh, Jan. 17, 1833. He was a schoolfellow of Walter Scott at Kelso grammar school. In 1795 he began practice as a solicitor in his native town, and the next year started a weekly journal called the "Kelso Mail," to which Scott contributed. By the advice of the novelist he removed to Edinburgh, to carry on the printing business. The first volumes issued from what he called the " Border Press " were the first and second of Scott's " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," brought out in a manner greatly superior to any Scotch printing of that time. The third volume followed in 1803. From that time he printed all of Scott's works, and the Ballan- tyne press attained a high reputation. From