Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/856

BENEKE. in opposition to those of Hegel. Beneke then held a position as lecturer at Gtittingen for three years, until in 1827 he was allowed to resume lecturing in Berlin. Upon the death of Hegel in 1832 he was appointed assistant professor of philosophy. On March 1, 1854, he disappeared from his home, and all traces of him were lost, until his corpse was discovered in the canal at Charlottenburg in June, 1856. He probably died by suicide.

Beneke was a prolific writer. His most important works were his psychological treatises. His standpoint throughout was empirical, opposed to Hegelian speculation, and closely allied to British Associationism. He believed that a true psychology, which is the basis of all knowledge, must be formulated in accordance with the rigid methods of physical science, and that the genetic method is most valuable. De- spite this empirical vein, he found the elements of mind in certain formal capacities, termed the 'primal faculties.' His work is so often theoretical and inexact that it must be regarded as stimulating rather than fundamental.

His principal works are: Erfnhrungsseelenlehre, als Gruiidlarje allcs Wissens, in ihren Hauptzilgen dargelegt (1820); yeue Grundlegungen ziir Metnphysik (1822) ; Psychologische Skizzen (1825-27) ; Lehrbuch der Psychologie als Naturtcissenschaft (4th ed., 1877); Erziehungsund Vnterrichtslehre (1835-36; 4th ed., 1876); System, der Logik als Kttnstlehre des Denkens (1842) ; Pragmatische Psychologie, oder Seelenlehre in der Aiurendung auf das Lehen (1850).

BENENGELI, ba'nen-na'le, CiD H.4.MET. The name of the old chronicler whose work Cervantes pretends to have used in his Don Quixote.

BEN'ET, Stephen Vincent (1827-95). An American soldier, born in Saint Augustine, Fla. He graduated at the University of Georgia, and in 1849 at West Point, where he was assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics from 1861 to 1864. He was appointed assistant to the chief of ordnance in 1869, and from 1874 until liis retirement in 1891 was chief of the department with the rank of brigadier-gen- eral. He translated Jomini's Political and Mili- tary Bistory of the Camjiaign of Waterloo; and in 1862 published Military Laie and the Prac- tice of f'ourts-Mnrtial, which is used as a text- book at West Point.

BEN'EVEN'TO (for derivation, see below). An archiepiscopal city in south Italy, capital of the Province of Benevento (Map: Italy, J 6). It is situated on a hill between the Galore and the Sabato, on the winding Naples-Foggia R;iil- way, 60 miles northeast of Naples. The walls are constructed almost entirely from Roman ruins, and on tlie north side of the town is Trajan's triumphal arch, the Porta Aurea, one of the best-preserved Roman structures in south Italy, erected in a.d. 114 in expectation of the Eni];eror"s return from the East, where he died in 117. It is 50 feet high, built of Greek marble, and bears appropriate reliefs. The Twelfth Centuiy Lombard-Saraeenic cathedral contains beautiful paintings, and has a bronze door adorned with reliefs of New Testament sub- jects, and said to have been made in Constan- tinople in 1150. There are Egyptian obelisks in many of the public squares. The principal manufactures are of gold and silver-plated ware, leather and parchment, and the trade in grain is important.

According to tradition, the Samnite Maleven- ium (Lat., ill-wind), the name of which was changed to Benerentum (fair wind) after the Roman victory over Pyrrhus in B.C. 275, was founded by Diomedes. In the cathedral is a re- lief showing the Calydoiiian boar adorned for sacrifice. During the Punic wars Beneventum remained faithful to the Romans and was plun- dered by Hannibal after his victory at Cannse B.C. 216. It was destroyed by Totila in A.D. 545, and was rebuilt by Narses. In the Sixth Cen- tury the Lombards made it the capital of an independent duchy, of which Pope Leo IX., in 1049, had the possession guaranteed to him by Emperor Henry III. From 1800 to 1815 Bene- vento was the capital of a principality granted to Talleyrand by Napoleon; in 1815 it was re- stored to the Pope, and in 1860 became part of the kingdom of Italy. Five councils were held here in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries. Population (commune), in 1881, 22,000; in 1901, 24.647. Consult Borgia, Memorie istoriche della pontifigia citlu di Benevento (Roma, 1763-69).

BENEVOLENCE (Lat. lenerolentia. good will, from bene, well + velle, to wish). In Eng- lish legal history, a compulsory contribution levied by certain kings, without other authority than the pretense of prerogative. The designa- tion dates from 1473, when Edward IV. asked it "as a mark of good-will toward his rule," but the tax had been known in former reigns. Sub- sequent kings tried the expedient with ill success, and Charles I. expressly declined to resort to it. The people protested against it in the Petition of Rights, etc., and various statutes have made it illegal without grant of Parliament. Consult Hallam's Constitutional History of England, and Stephen's Commentaries, Vol. I. (4 vols.. New York, 1843-46).

BEN'EZET', Anthony (1713-84). An Ameri- can philanthropist. He was born in France, but emigrated to America, and in 1731 settled in Pbiladelphia. He wrote a number of tracts in the interest of the negro and the Indian, and was one of the earliest opponents of the slave-trade. Among his tracts may be mentioned: A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies, in a Short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominion (1767); Some Historical Account of Guinea, uith an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of m the Slave-Trade (1774); A Short Account of % the Society of Friends (1780) ; and Observations on the Indian Natives of this Continent (1784). Consult Roberts Vaux. Memoir of the Life of Anthony Benezet (Philadelphia, 1847).

BENFEY, ben'fi, (1809-81). A German Orientalist, born at Norten, Hanover. He studied at Giittingen and Munich; from 1834 was a lecturer at the former university, and from 1848 professor. His researches in the Sanskrit language and literature were particularly extensive and valuable. In the introduction to his translation into German (2 vols., 1859) of the collection of fables known as Pancatantra (q.v.), he began a most interesting study of the influence of ancient Indian material upon the folk-lore of Asia and Europe. This investigation he continued in his periodical. Orient und Occident (published at Giittingen in 1863-65, 3 vols.), and in