Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/775

* BURIATS. 691 BUKKE. effects of Rus:?iaii inniieiicc and the present con- dition of tiie Buriats are discussed at length. The Buriats are increasini;' in numbers, and as- simihition with the Russian popuhition of Si- beria, not extinction, seems to be their destiny. See Siberia, paragraph Ethiiologi). BURIDAN, by'ie'diix', Jea.x (c.l.SOO-c.'iS). A I'niioh siliolastio metaphysician of the n(mii- nalistic party. Ue was bom at Bethune, in Ar- tois, studied in Paris under Occam, and was rector of the university there in 1327. Little is known of his life. It is related, but alsodisputed, that Buridau was driven from France, Hed to Austria, and there gave the impetus to the found- ing of the University of Vienna. He took no part in theological discussions. His name is popularly connected with the pons asinonim (in logic, not in geometry) and with the ass twtween two hay- ■ stacks. The former was a name given to any laboriously obtained syllogistic middle term, which acts as a bridge to connect major and minor terms. (See Logic.) Such a term was called 'an ass's bridge,' because, according to Aristotle, in a clear reasoner's thought this mid- dle term is spontaneously suggested. The other ass, carefully placed between two equally allur- ing bundles of hay (called 'Buridan's ass'), es- tablished the doctrine of determinism (q.v. ). Neither the ass nor his bridge appears in Buri- dan's extant writings, and they are probably inventions, the former of a hostile caricaturist, the latter of some friendly wit. His chief works are iiiimma de Dialeotica (1487); Compendium Loqicm (1489); In Aristotelis Metaphysica (1518); and Quwstiones in Decern Libros Elhi- lorum Aristotelis (1489). Consult Prantl, Qe- schichte der Logik, Vol. IV. (Leipzig, 185.5-70). See XoMix.iLisM. BTJ'RIN. A port of entry, capital of a dis- trict of the same name. Newfoundland, on Pla- eentia Bay, 190 miles south of Saint John's (Map: Xewfoundland, E 5). It has a well-pro- tected harbor, important fisheries, and carries on a considerable trade with Saint Pierre. Popula- tion, 3000. BIT'RIN ( Fr.. probably from OHG. bora. Engl. lore, gimlet), or Graver. The principal instru- n^eiit used in line-engraving. It is made of tempered steel, and is of prismatic form, the graving end l>eing ground off obliquely to a sharp point. The style of a master is frequently de- scribed by the expressions soft burin, graphic burin, brilliant burin, or whatever other charac- ter may belong to it. See Etching. BURITI (bu'ri-te') PALM (Portug., from native Brazilian). A beautiful palm which grows in great abundance in the swamps of some parts of the north of Brazil. It is Maurilia vinifera, one of several species of the genus Man- ritia, and is one of the loftiest of palms. Its leaves are fan-shaped, and form a large globular head at the top of the stem. It produces a great number of nuts about the size of a small hen's egg, covered with rhomboidal scales arranged in a spiral manner. Between these scales and the albuminous substances of the nut there is an oily, reddish pulp, which is boiled with sugar and made into a sweetmeat. .An emulsion is also l)repared from it, which, when sweetened with sugar, is a very palatable beverage. The juice of the stem also makes a very agreeable drink. To obtain it, the tree is usually cut down, when several holes about 6 inches square, 3 inches deep, and 6 feet apart, are cut in the trunk with a snuiU axe: and these in a short time arc filled with a reddish-colored liquid, having much the flavor of sweet wine. There are six or seven sjjecies of Mauritia, all of them American. BURKE, Edmun-d (17'29-97). An English statesnuui and orator. He was born in Dublin, where his father had an extensive practice as an attorney. As a schoolboy he displayed those traits of character and the germs of those pow- ers which ultimately gave liira greatness. His preparatory training was gained at a school in Ii:illitore, County Kildare. kept by Abraham Shackleton, a member of the Society of Friends. To this man, whom he always held in affectionate esteem, he believed he owed the best part of his education. In 1743 Burke entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he seems mainly to have devoted himself to his favorite studies of poetry, oratory, history, and metaphysics. He made him.self ac- quainted with Latin writers, particularly with Cicero, whom he accepted as a model 'in elo- quence, in policy, in ethics, and philosophy.' In February, 1748, he graduated B.A., and in 1751 took his degree as master of arts. In the inter- val (1750), being destined for the English bar, he proceeded to London, to keep his terms at the Middle Temple, where he had been entered in 1748. To legal studies, however, he never took kindly, and ultimately he abandoned the idea of becoming a barrister. During the years 1750-56 he would appear to have occupied himself mainly in traveling through England and on the Conti- nent, enjoying the society of literary men. When yet at the university Burke had achieved a local reputation for literary talent and elo- quence. Among the compositions of his under- graduate life the most noticeable perhaps is his translation of the conclusion of the Second Georgic of Vergil, which shows poetic talent of no mean order. His first important publication, however, was the celebrated Vindication of Nat- ural l<ociet!/, written in imitation and. ridicule of the style and reasoning of Lord Bolingbroke, in which, with well-concealed irony, he endea- vored to confute his lordship's views of society by a reductio ad absiirdum. Tliis work, pub- lished anonTnously in 1756, attracted consider- able attention. Soon after, in the same year, ap- peared his well-known essay. The Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas on the tiab- lime and Beautiful — a work which gained the praise of Johnson and Lessing. The essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, al- though of little real value, attained a rapid pop- ularity, and its author soon found himself court- ed by all the eminent men of his time. (Jarrick was already one of his friends; among them he soon could count Reynolds. Soame Jenyns, I-ord Lyttelton. (Joldsmith. Hume, and Dr. .lohnson. Notwithstanding this pojiularity, his progress continued slow ; for three years he had to occupy himself with periodical writing, devoting his lei- sure principally to political subjects. What is considered a joint work of Burke and his cousin, William Burke, appeared in 1757 — An Account of the European Hcttlements in America — and shows how carefully at this date he had studied the condition of the Colonies. During the next year he liegan his writing for the Annual Regis- ter, the first volume of which appeared in 1759. In 1701 Mr. W. G. Hamilton ('Single-speech'