to our knowledge of the manners of the 15th century, which was published by Jos. Edm. Horky, in a German translation printed at Brünn, 1824. M. Gallus, Albjk, Chrislan, Zidek, J. Cerny, J. Blowic and Sindel, wrote on medicine, astrology and agriculture. As early as 1447, we have an anonymous work on the grafting of trees. We have also the rhyming legend of the 10,000 knights, a translation of the fables of Esop, the council of the beasts and birds, in prose and verse, in 3 vols. (Placj Rada). Each lesson, which flows in rhyme from the mouths of the animals, is preceded by the natural history of the animals and the moral. It was printed three times in the Bohemian language, and published at Cracow in Latin verse, 1521, 4to. There is, likewise, a satire, in 132 verses, on the persecution of the priests of the Taborites; the Maitraum of Hynek of Podiebrad, the younger son of king George; besides several vocabularies and romances, among which is Tkadlecek, which has been published at Vienna, in a German translation. Of the Bible, 14 translations have come down to us, besides 10 of the New Testament. The oldest, of the year 1400, is in Dresden. The typographic art made a rapid progress in Bohemia. The first printed work was the epistle of Huss from Constance, in 1459; the second, the Trojan War, in 1468; the third, a New Testament, in 1474; the whole Bible, in 1488; the first almanac, in 1489.-The third age, from 1500 to 1620, may be called the golden age of the Bohemian language. During those dreadful tumults, in which, not only in this kingdom, but also in the neighboring countries, populous cities became heaps of ashes, and innumerable villages entirely disappeared, the peculiar inclination of the nation to investigation, and their predilection for science and art, developed themselves. The cultivation of learning-in other countries, with only a few exceptions, the monopoly of the clergy-was, in this favoured land, open to the whole nation. All branches of science were elaborated, and brought to an uncommonly high degree of improvement for that time. The purpose of this work does not allow us to enumerate all the authors of this age, since, under Rodolph II alone, there were more than 150. Gregory Hruby of Geleni translated the work of Petrarch, De Remediis utriusque Fortuna. W. Pisecky translated from the Greek the Exhortation of Isocrates to Demonikos. John Amos Comenius wrote

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54 works, some of which were very excellent. He published his Janua and an Orbis Pictus, which were translated, in his lifetime, into 11 languages, have passed through innumerable editions, and are not yet surpassed. In all the north of Europe, Comenius attracted attention by his projects for improving education, which were deliberated upon even by the diet of Sweden and the parliament of England. The hymns of this and the earlier ages, part of which have been translated by Luther, may serve as standards for all languages. In Prague alone, there were, at this period, 18 printing-presses; in the country-towns of B. 7, and in Moravia also 7: many Bohemian books, too, were printed in foreign countries, as in Venice, Nüremberg, Holland, Poland, Dresden, Wittenberg and Leipsic.-The fourth period begins with 1620, and ends with 1774. After the battle at the White mountain, the whole Bohemian nation submitted entirely to the conqueror. The population of most of the cities and of whole districts migrated, in order not to be false to their faith. More than 70,000 men, and almost the whole of the nobility, all the Protesta at clergy, scholars and artists, in general, the most cultivated part of the nation, left their native country. Of these emigrants, the greater part formed the flower of the army of count Mansfeld. Hence the 30 years' war depopulated Bohemia more than any other country, since these fugitives endeavored to regain their native country by repeated invasions. Nothing, however, was so disadvantageous to Bohemian literature as the introduction of monks, who were mostly Italians, Spaniards and Southern Germans, who condemned every Bohemian work, as heretical, to the flames, so that individuals boasted of having burnt about 60,000 manuscripts, which they took from the people by force, after searching their houses. Such works as escaped the flames were shut up in monasteries, in carefully-secured rooms, fastened with iron grates, doors, locks, bolts and chains, and often inscribed with the warning title Hell. Instead of these excellent remains of the classical times of the country, they gave the Bohemians nonsense of all kinds; accounts of hell and purgatory, the reading of which made many of the populace maniacs; though even this stuff was, in many cases, burnt, and mostly forbidden. The fugitives established at Amsterdam, Dresden, Berlin, Breslau and Halle, printingpresses, and sent to their brethren in

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Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary, a number of books, mostly new editions. Some Bohemians, who observed the decay of their language, strove to remedy it; as Pesina Z. Cechorodu; Joh. Beckowsky, who continued the Bohemian history to 1620; W. Weseley, who wrote a work on geometry and trigonometry, &c.; but the decay was too great to admit of being checked; the nobility had become strangers, and the government encouraged only German literature. From this time, therefore, the Bohemians wrote more in the German language.-In the fifth period, from 1774 to 1826, a new ray of hope shone on Bohemian literature; when, under the emperor Joseph II, a deputation of secret Bohemian Protestants, trusting to his liberal views, made him acquainted with the great number of their brethren of the same faith. He perceived the necessity of introducing toleration, and hundreds of thousands of Protestants, in Bohemia and Moravia, came to light: their concealed works were printed anew, their classical language was again acknowledged and cultivated. This is done still more under the present government, who perceive the necessity and utility of the Sclavonian language, which, in the Austrian states, is spoken by 14,000,000 people, and of which the Bohemian is the written dialect. Under this protection, many men of merit, mindful of the fame of their ancestors, have endeavored to cultivate anew all branches of the sciences, and to reach, if possible, their more advanced neighbors. In particular, the members of the Bohemian society of sciences, of the national museum, and of other patriotic societies, above all, count Kollowrath-Liebsteinsky and count Caspar of Sternberg, deserve to be named with high respect.-The Bohemian has natural talents for mathematics, as Copernicus, Vega, Strnad, Wydra, Littrow, &c., may prove. The corps of Austrian artillery, which are recruited in Bohemia and Moravia, have always contained men distinguished for acquaintance with this science. In philology and music, the Bohemians are likewise eminent. The teacher of Mozart was Kluck, a Bohemian. Recently, Adlabert Sedlaczek, canon of a chapter of the Præmonstratenses, has distinguished himself by physical and mathematical compendiums in the Bohemian language.--Compare the Vollständige Böhmische Literatur of professor Jungmann (Prague, 1825, 2 vols.).

BOLARDO, Matteo Maria, count of Scan

diano, was born at a seat belonging to his family near Ferrara, in 1434. From 1488 to 1494, the period of his death, he was commander of the city and castle of Reggio, in the service of his protector, Ercole d'Este, duke of Modena. This accomplished courtier, scholar and knight was particularly distinguished as a poet. His Orlando Innamorato (Scandiano, 1496) is continued to the 79th canto, but not completed. He immortalized the names of his own peasants, and the charms of the scenery at Scandiano, in the persons of his heroes and his descriptions of the beauties of nature. In language and versification, he has been since surpassed by Ariosto, whom he equalled in invention, grace, and skilful conduct of complicated episodes. Dominichi, Berni and Agostini new modelled and continued the work of B. without improving it. One continuation, only, will never be forgotten-the immortal Orlando of Ariosto. In some of his works, B. was led, by the spirit of his times, to a close imitation of the ancients; e. g., in his Capitoli; also, in a comedy borrowed from Lucian's Timon; and in his Latin eclogues and translations of Herodotus and Apuleius. In his sonnets and canzoni (first printed at Reggio, 1499), he has displayed great talents as a lyric poet.

BOIL; to heat a fluid until it bubbles and becomes changed into vapor. If the requisite heat is applied a sufficient time, bubbles continually arise, until the fluid is entirely consumed. A singular circumstance is to be remarked, that the fluid, in open vessels, when it has once begun to boil, receives no increase of heat, even from the hottest fire. The reason is this, that the additional caloric goes to form steam, and ascends with it into the air. The steam itself, when formed, may be raised to a much higher degree of temperature. During the period of boiling, the surface of the fluid exhibits a violent undulating motion, and the stratum of air immediately over it is filled with vapor. The noise which accompanies boiling, arises, without doubt, from the displacing of the steam-bubbles, and varies very much with the nature and situation of the vessel. The vaporization of fluids is, very probably, nothing more than a mechanical union of caloric with the fluid. The degree of heat at which different fluids boil is very different. Spirits boil at the lowest temperature; pure water next; at a still higher temperature, the fixed oils. The degree of heat at which a fluid boils is called its boiling point.

This is used as one of the fixed points in the graduation of thermometers. This point is uniform only in case of complete boiling, and under a uniform pressure of the atmosphere. The influence of this pressure appears from experiments. In an exhausted receiver, the heat of the human hand is sufficient to make water boil; while, on the contrary, in Papin's digester, where the confinement prevents evaporation, it may be heated to 300 or 400 degrees without boiling. Under the common pressure of the atmosphere, the boiling point of rain-water is 212° Fahrenheit; that of alcohol, 174°; that of mercury, 660°; that of ether, 98°. From the experiments of prof. Robinson, it appears, that, in a vacuum, all liquids boil about 145° lower than in the open air, under a pressure of 30 inches of mercury; water, therefore, would boil in a vacuum at 67° Ether may be made to boil at the common temperature, by merely exhausting the air from the vessel in which it is contained.

BOILEAU, Despréaux Nicholas, born in 1636, at Crosne, near Paris, commenced his studies in the collège d'Harcourt, and continued them in the collège de Beauvais. Even in his early youth, he read with ardor the great poets of antiquity, and tried his own powers in a tragedy, though with little success. After having completed his academical studies, he entered upon the career of the law; but soon left it from disinclination, tried some other pursuits, and resolved, finally, to devote himself entirely to belles-lettres. His first satire, Les adieux à Paris, made known his talents. In 1666, he published In 1666, he published seven satires, with an introduction, addressed to the king. They met with extraordinary applause; for no one, before him, had written with such elegance of versification. But in this, and in the purity of his language, and the clearness with which he sets forth his luminous principles, consists their chief merit; novel, profound, original ideas, we should look for in vain, though the pieces are not destitute of graceful touches and delicate strokes. They are unequal in merit. The satires Sur l'Équivoque and Sur l'Homme have undeniable defects. That on Women, which he wrote at a more advanced age, is monotonous, and deficient in humor. His epistles, in which he is the successful rival of Horace, are more esteemed at the present day. They display a graceful versification, a natural and sustained style, vigorous and well connected ideas. These were followed

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by his Art Poétique, in which he describes with precision and taste, all the different kinds of poetry (with the exception of the apologue), and lays down rules for them. In regularity of plan, happy transitions, and continual elegance of style, this poem is superior to the Ars Poetica of Horace. It was long regarded, not only in France, but also in foreign countries, as a poetical code, and has every where had a favorable influence, as it inculcates purity and regularity, and subjects all the productions of poetical genius to a fixed standard. B.'s censures of Tasso and Quinault, with some other equally unfounded opinions, display a narrowness of spirit. He had many opponents, who accused him of want of fertility, invention and variety. To refute them, he wrote his Lutrin, a mock-heroic poem, which is still unrivalled in the eyes of the French. A music-stand, which had been removed from its place, had occasioned dissensions in a chapter: this is the subject of B.'s poem, in which his art of making petty details interesting deserves as much praise as the other excellences of his poetry already enumerated. In his life, B. was amiable and generous. amiable and generous. Louis XIV gave him the place of historiographer, in connexion with Racine. As he had attacked the academicians in several of his writings, he was not received into their society until 1684, and then only by the interference of the king. He died in 1711, of the dropsy. of the dropsy. M. de St. Surin has published Œuvres de Boileau, with a commentary, Paris, 1824, 4 vols. The first volume of Daunou's (member of the institute) Œuvres complètes de Boileau, with a literary and historical commentary, appeared in Paris, 1825.

BOILER. (See Steam and Steam Engine.)

BOIS-LE-DUC (the French name for the Dutch Hertogenbosh, also Im Bosh); a fortified city in the province of North Brabant, in the kingdom of the Netherlands, with 3770 houses and 13,300 inhabitants, at the confluence of the Dommel and the Aa, which form, by their junction, the Diest. Lon. 5° 9′ E.; lat. 51° 40′ N. It has many manufactories, and much trade in corn, some saltworks, a lyceum, 10 Catholic churches, 4 Calvinistic, 1 Lutheran. Godfrey, duke of Brabant, founded this important military post in 1184. The fortifications now consist of strong walls and seven bastions, but it owes its security, chiefly, to the facility with which the whole country around can be laid under water (the new

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canal to Maestricht has 16 sluices). B. is defended by several forts and a citadel. The city has four gates, and three entrances from the water. The cathedral is one of the finest in the Netherlands. The city suffered much in the religious wars of the 16th century, and fell into the hands of the Dutch in 1629. Sept. 14, 1794, the French defeated the English here; Oct. 9 of the same year, it surrendered to Pichegru. In January, 1814, it was taken by the Prussian general Bülow. BOISSERÉE. A celebrated gallery of pictures is exhibited in Stuttgart, which was collected by the brothers Sulpice and Melchior Boisserée, and John Bertram, men who, animated by love of the arts, began, at the time of the destruction of the monasteries, during and after the French revolution, to purchase old pictures, and afterwards completed their collection by the addition of many valuable paintings of the old German school. By this collection, the brothers Boisserée, and Bertram, have happily realized the idea of a historical series of old German paintings. It is to their endeavors that we owe the discovery, that Germany possessed, as early as the 13th century, a school of painters of much merit, which, like the Italian, proceeded from the old Byzantine school, but became, in the sequel, distinguished by excellences of its own. We owe to these collectors, also, the restoration to favor of the forgotten Low German masters, and a just estimation of John von Eyck, as the creator of the genuine German style of painting. By this collection, the names of von Eyck, Wilhelm von Köln, Hemling, Goes, Meckenem, Wohlgemuth, Schoen, Mabuse, Schoorel, and many others, have attained deserved honor. The most distinguished connoisseurs and artists, including Göthe, Canova, Dannecker and Thorwaldsen, have strongly expressed their admiration of this collection. The proprietors are publishing a work consisting of excellent lithographic prints from their pictures. In the autumn of 1820, the publication of the splendid engravings, illustrative of the cathedral in Cologne, was resolved

on.

The plates surpass, in size and execution, every thing which had appeared in the department of architectural delineations, and were partly made in Paris. (See Boisserée's Geschichte und Beschreihung des Doms von Köln, Stuttgart, 1823.) BOISSONADE, Jean François, born at Paris, 1774, one of the most distinguished Greek scholars in France, was made assistant professor of the Greek language

in the university of Paris, in 1809; and, in 1812, after the death of Larcher, whom he succeeded in the institute, principal professor. The king made him a member of the legion of honor in 1814, and, in 1816, member of the academy of inscriptions. Besides valuable contributions to the Journal des Débats, to the Mercure, to the Magazin Encyclopédique, to the Biographie Universelle, and to the Notices et Extraits (10 vols.), we are indebted to him for an edition of the Heroica of Philostratus (1806), and of the Rhetoric of Tiberius (1815). Still more important are his editions of Eunapus' Lives of the Sophists, of Proclus' Commentary on the Cratylus of Plato, never before printed; of a Greek romance by Nicetas Eugenianus, &c. He compiled, also, a French dictionary, on the plan of Johnson's.

BOJACA, BATTLE OF, so called, from having been fought near the bridge of the small town of Bojaca, not far from the city of Tunja, between the Spaniards, under Barreyro, and the united forces of Venezuela and New Grenada, commanded by Bolivar. It occurred August 7th, 1819, and was decisive of the independence of New Grenada. Among the republicans, generals Anzuategui, Paez and Santander distinguished themselves; and the Spaniards sustained a total defeat, their general, most of their officers and men who survived the battle, together with all their arms, ammunition and equipments, falling into the hands of Bolivar. So complete was the destruction of the Spanish army, that the viceroy instantly fled from Santa Fé, leaving even the public treasure a prey to the conquerors.

BOLE; a fossil of a yellow, brown, or red color, often marked with black dendrites found in different parts of Bohemia, Silesia and Stiria, also in Lemnos, and at Sienna in Italy. It is made into pipes for smoking, and vessels for cooling water in hot weather. The terra sigillata is nothing but bole

BOLEYN, OF BOLEN, Anne, second wife of Henry VIII of England, was the youngest child of sir Thomas Boleyn and a daughter of the duke of Norfolk. She was born, according to some accounts, in 1507, but, according to other more probable ones, in 1499 or 1500. She attended Mary, sister of Henry, on her marriage with Louis XII, to France, as lady of honor. On the return of that princess, after the king's death, she entered the service of queen Claude, wife of Francis I, and, after her death, that of the duchess

of Alençon, sister of the French king. Young, beautiful, gay and witty, she was an object of great attraction in the gallant court of Francis I. She returned to England about 1525 or 1527, and became lady of honor to the queen, whom she soon supplanted. The king, passionately enamored of her, found an unexpected opposition to his wishes, and Anne firmly declared that she could be had on no terms but those of marriage. She knew that the king already meditated a divorce from his wife, Catharine of Aragon; but she also knew what difficulties the Catholic religion opposed to the execution of this plan. Cranmer offered his services to bring about the accomplishment of the king's wishes, and thus gave the first occasion to the separation of England from the Roman church. But the impetuous Henry did not wait for the ministers of his new religion to confirm his divorce: on the contrary, he privately married Anne, Nov. 14, 1532, having previously created her marchioness of Pembroke. When her pregnancy revealed the secret, Cranmer declared the first marriage void, and the second valid, and Anne was crowned queen at Westminster, with unparalleled splendor. In 1533, she became the mother of the famous Elizabeth. She could not, however, retain the affections of the king, as inconstant as he was tyrannical; and, as she had supplanted her queen, while lady of honor to Catharine, she was now supplanted herself by Jane Seymour, her own lady of honor. Suspicions of infidelity were added to the disgust of Henry, which seem to be not entirely unfounded, although the judicial process instituted against her was wholly irregular. In 1535, she was imprisoned, accused, and brought before a jury of peers. Smeaton, a musician, who was arrested with others, confessed that he had enjoyed the queen's favors, and, May 17, 1536, she was condemned to death by 26 judges. Anne in vain affirmed that she had long before been contracted to the duke of Northumberland, and, therefore, had never been the lawful wife of Henry. Cranmer in vain declared the marriage void. The sentence of death was executed by the command of the inflexible Henry, who esteemed it a great exercise of clemency to substitute the scaffold for the stake. The last day of the life of this unhappy woman, May 19, 1536, presents many interesting moments. She sent for the wife of the lieutenant of the Tower, threw herself upon her knees before her, and said, "Go to the princess

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Mary (daughter of Catharine) in my name, and, in this position, beg her forgiveness for all the sufferings I have drawn upon her and her mother." "She sent her last message to the king," says Hume, and acknowledged the obligations which she owed him in uniformly continuing his endeavors for her advancement." "From a private gentlewoman, you have made me, first, a marchioness, then a queen; and, as you can raise me no higher in this world, you are now sending me to be a saint in heaven."

BOLINGBROKE, Henry St. John, viscount, born in 1672, at Battersea, near London, of an ancient family, the members of which had distinguished themselves in military and civil offices, received an education adapted to his rank, and completed his studies at Oxford, where he early exhibited uncommon talents, and attracted general attention. On entering the world, he displayed a rare union of brilliant parts and elegance of manners, with beauty of person, dignity and affability, and such fascinating eloquence, that, according to the unanimous testimony of his contemporaries, nobody could resist him. Unfortunately, the passions of his youth opposed the developement of his talents; and, in his 23d year, he was distinguished principally as an accomplished libertine. His parents, supposing that marriage would have a salutary influence upon him, proposed to him a lady, the heiress of a million, who united with a charming figure a cultivated mind and noble birth. But the young couple had lived but a short time together, when irreconcilable disputes arose between them, in consequence of which they separated for ever. Another plan was adopted to give a better direction to the impetuous character of B. By the influence of his father, he obtained a seat in the house of commons. Here his eloquence, his acuteness, and the strength of his judgment, attracted universal attention. His former idleness was changed at once into the most incessant activity. In 1704, he was made secretary of war, and came into immediate connexion with the duke of Marlborough, whose talents he discerned, and whose enterprises he supported with all his influence. When, however, the whigs gained the ascendency, B. gave in his resignation. Now followed, as he said himself, the two most active years of his life, in which he devoted himself to study, but by no means neglected public affairs.

He continued to maintain a constant intercourse with the queen, who preferred him to her other counsellors