very strong, hooked claws, well suited for burrowing. Five species at present belong to this genus. The Linnæan genus comprised the raccoon, badger, &c., now, properly, separated from it. These species are, the brown bear of Europe (U. arctos); the white or polar bear (U. maritimus); the American or black bear (U. Americanus); the grisly bear (U. horribilis), also of America; and the Malayan or Asiatic bear (U. labiatus). The brown bear is chiefly an inhabitant of cold and elevated situations, and feeds on a great variety of animal and vegetable substances. During winter, this species, like some others, remains torpid in caves, whither it retires, in the autumn, very fat, and comes out, in the spring, extremely emaciated. The brown bear is remarkable for its sagacity, as well as the ferocity of its disposition, and it becomes especially sanguinary as it advances in age. Besides the differences of color and size which distinguish this bear from those belonging to the old continent, it differs from the American bears, by having a convexity of front above the eyes, which renders its physiognomy strikingly dissimilar to theirs. Other distinctions, sufficiently obvious, present themselves when the species are compared.-The polar, or maritime bear, is only found in high northern latitudes, along the borders of the Icy ocean and northern coasts of America in the vicinity of Hudson's bay. It does not descend to the eastern coast of Siberia nor Kamtschatka; neither is it found in the islands lying between Siberia and America. It is uniformly white, attains a large size, is very powerful, ferocious and daring. It is an excellent diver and swimmer, being apparently as much at home in the ocean as on land. An individual of this species was seen, by the late northern explorers, in the middle of Melville sound, swimming across, where the shores were at least 30 miles apart. The polar bear is the most exclusively carnivorous of the genus, though equally capable of living on vegetable food with the rest. He preys upon seals, the cubs of the whale, morse, &c., or the carcasses of whales left by whalers after removing the blubber. Individuals of this species are sometimes, though rarely, seen in caravans of wild animals in the U. States. A large and beautiful one was exhibited in New York, in the spring of 1826, and, notwithstanding the coolness of the weather, it appeared to suffer extremely from heat, as it bathed itself frequently in water provided for the pur

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pose. When ice was placed in the cage, it rolled upon it with great satisfaction, and showed every sign of being gratified.

-The black bear of America is distinguished by its color and a peculiarly convex facial outline. It is found very generally in mountainous and forest lands, and subsists, in a great degree, on berries and vegetable substances, though it preys upon small animals, and insects, which it searches for industriously, by turning over large logs of decayed timber. It is rarely, if ever, known to attack man, unless in self-defence. It is very fond of young corn and honey, which, being an expert climber, like the brown European bear, it obtains by plundering the wild bees.The grisly bear inhabits the country adjacent to the Rocky mountains, and is, of all the race, the most dreadful for size, strength and terrible ferocity of nature.* -The Malay, Asiatic or long-lipped bear, is a native of the mountainous parts of India, and feeds on white ants, rice, honey, the fruit of the palm, &c. The species is inoffensive and timid, burrows in the ground, and lives in pairs, together with the young, which, when alarmed, seek safety by mounting on the backs of the parents.

BEARD; the hair round the chin, on the cheeks and the upper lip, which is a distinction of the male sex. It differs from the hair on the head by its greater hardness and its form. The beard begins to grow at the time of puberty. The connexion between the beard and puberty is evident from this, among other circumstances, that it never grows in the case of eunuchs who have been such from childhood; but the castration of adults does not cause the loss of the beard. According to Cæsar, the Germans thought, and perhaps justly, the late growth of the beard favorable to the developement of all the powers. But there are cases in which this circumstance is an indication of feebleness. It frequently takes place in men of tender constitution. whose pale color indicates little power The beards of different nations afford an interesting study. Some have hardly any, others a great profusion. The latter generally consider it as a great ornament, the former pluck it out; as, for instance, the American Indians. The character of the beard differs with that of the individual, and, in the case of nations, varies

* For the detailed history of this and the two preceding species, too extensive to be introduced into this work, see the first volume of the Ameri can Natural History, by the writer of this article.

with the climate, food, &c. Thus the beard is generally dark, dry, hard and thin in irritable persons of full age: the same is the case with the inhabitants of hot and dry countries, as the Arabians, Ethiopians, East Indians, Italians, Spaniards. But persons of a very mild disposition have a light-colored, thick and slightly curling beard: the same is the case with inhabitants of cold and humid countries, as Holland, England, Sweden. The difference of circumstances causes all shades of variety. The nature of the nourishment, likewise, causes a great variety in the beard. Wholesome, nutritious and digestible food makes the beard soft; but poor, dry and indigestible food renders it hard and bristly. In general, the beard has been considered, with all nations, as an ornament, and often as a mark of the sage and the priest. Moses forbade the Jews to shave their beards. With the ancient Germans, the cutting off another's beard was a high offence; with the East Indians, it is severely punished. Even now, the beard is regarded as a mark of great dignity among many nations in the East, as the Turks. The custom of shaving is said to have come into use during the reigns of Louis XIII and XIV of France, both of whom ascended the throne without a beard. Courtiers and inhabitants of cities then began to shave, in order to look like the king, and, as France soon took the lead in all matters of fashion on the continent of Europe, shaving became general; but it is only since the beginning of the last century, that shaving off the whole beard has become common. Till then, fashion had given divers forms to mustachioes and beards. Much could be said, and has been said, in a medical point of view, on shaving the beard. Such a discussion would lead us, however, here too far. It is not to be denied, that the mouth, one of the most expressive parts of the countenance, is shown to much better advantage in consequence of shaving; but, at the same time, old age appears to much greater disadvantage, the beard concealing the loss of the teeth. Moreover, the eye gains much in expression by a full beard. Every one knows the trouble of shaving; and who does not remember Byron's computation of the amount of this trouble in Don Juan? Seume, a German author, says, in his journal, "To-day I threw my powder apparatus out of the window: when will come the blessed day, that I shall send the shaving apparatus after it!"

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Shaving, among many ancient nations, was the mark of mourning; with others, it was the contrary. Plutarch says that Alexander introduced shaving among the Greeks, by ordering his soldiers to cut off their beards; but it appears that this custom had prevailed before among the Macedonians. The Romans began to shave about 454 A. U., 296 B. C., when a certain Ticinius Moenas, a barber from Sicily, introduced this fashion. Scipio Africanus was the first who shaved every day. The day that a young man first shaved was celebrated, and the first hair cut off was sacrificed to a deity. Adrian, in order to cover some large warts on his chin, renewed the fashion of long beards; but it did not last long. In mourning, the Romans wore a long beard sometimes for years. They used scissors, razors, tweezers, &c., to remove the beard. The public barber shops (tonstrina), where the lower classes went, were much resorted to; rich people kept a shaver (tonsor) among their slaves.

BEARN; before the revolution, a province of France, at the foot of the Pyrenees, with the title of a principality; about 42 miles long and 36 broad; bounded E. by Bigorre, N. by Armagnac, Tursan and Chalosse, W. by Dax, a part of Soule, and the Lower Navarre, and S. by the Pyrenees. It belonged, with Navarre, to Henry IV, when he obtained the crown. The plain country is very fertile, and the mountains are covered with firtrees, while within are mines of copper, lead and iron; and the little hills are planted with vines, which yield good wine. It is now included in the department of Lower Pyrenees. Pau was the capital town. Pop. about 220,000.

BEATIFICATION, in the Roman Catholic church; an act by which the pope declares a person beatified or blessed after his death. It is the first step to canonization, i. e. the raising one to the honor and dignity of a saint. No person can be beatified till 50 years after his or her death. All certificates or attestations of virtues and miracles, the necessary qualifications for saintship, are examined by the congregation of rites. This examination often continues for several years; after which his holiness decrees the beatification. The corpse and relics of the future saint are from thenceforth exposed to the veneration of all good Christians; his image is crowned with rays, and a particular office is set apart for him; but his body and relics are not carried in procession Indulgences, likewise, and remissions of

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sins, are granted on the day of his beatification; which, though not so pompous as that of canonization, is, however, very splendid. Beatification differs from canonization in this, that the pope does not act as a judge in determining the state of the beatified, but only grants a privilege to certain persons to honor him by a particular religious worship, without incurring the penalty of superstitious worshippers; but, in canonization, the pope speaks as a judge, and determines, ex cathedra, upon the state of the canonized. Beatification was introduced when it was thought proper to delay the canonization of saints, for the greater assurance of the truth of the steps taken in the procedure. Some particular orders of monks have assumed to themselves the power of beatification. Thus Octavia Melchiorica was beatified by the Dominicans. (See Canonization.)

BEATON, David, archbishop of St. Andrews, and cardinal, was born in 1494. Pope Paul III raised him to the rank of cardinal in December, 1538; and, being employed by James V in negotiating his marriage at the court of France, he was there consecrated bishop of Mirepoix. Soon after his instalment as archbishop, he promoted a furious persecution of the reformers in Scotland; but the king's death put a stop, for a time, to his arbitrary proceedings, he being then excluded from affairs of government, and confined. He raised, however, so strong a party, that, upon the coronation of the young queen Mary, he was admitted into the council, made chancellor, and received a commission as legate a latere from Rome. He now began to renew his persecution of heretics, and, among the rest, of the famous Protestant preacher George Wishart, whose sufferings at the stake he viewed from his window, with apparent exultation. B. was murdered in his chamber, May 29, 1546. He united with great talents equally great vices, and left several children, the fruit of open concubinage.

BEATTIE, James, LL. D., a pleasing poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Lawrencekirk, in the county of Kincardine, in 1735. He lost his father when he was only seven years of age, but was placed early at the only school his birthplace afforded, whence he was removed to Marischal college, Aberdeen. He there studied Greek, under the principal, Thomas Blackwell, and made a general proficiency in every branch of education, except mathematics. In 1753, he ob

tained the degree of A. M., and accepted the office of school-master and parishclerk to the parish of Fordoun, looking forward to the church of Scotland as his principal prospect, for which reason he still attended, during winter, the divinity lectures at Marischal college. In June, 1758, these views were somewhat changed, by the attainment of the situation of one of the masters of the grammarschool of Aberdeen. In 1761, he published a volume of poems, which were received favorably, but which he subsequently thought very little of, and endeavored to buy up. They nevertheless procured him some powerful friends, whose patronage obtained him the appointment of professor of moral philosophy and logic at Marischal college. In 1765, he published a poem, the Judgment of Paris, (4to.), which proved a failure, although it was afterwards added to a new edition of his poems, in 1766. The work which procured him the greatest fame was his Essay on Truth, which first appeared in 1770. It was so popular, that, in four years, five large editions were sold; and it was translated into several foreign languages. Among other marks of respect, the university of Oxford conferred on the author the degree of LL. D.; and George III honored him, on his visit to London, with a private conference and a pension. He was also solicited to enter the church of England by flattering proposals from the archbishop of York and the bishop of London; which proposals he declined, lest his opponents should attribute the change to self-interest. The popularity of this celebrated essay, which was written in opposition to the prevalent scepticism of Hume and others, was principally owing to its easiness of style, and to a mode of treating the subject, calculated for the meridian of slight scholarship and medium intellect. This is often a great source of immediate celebrity ; but, thus produced, it is usually as transitory as spontaneous, which has proved the case in the present instance. A few months after the appearance of the Essay on Truth, B. published the first book of the Minstrel (4to.), and, in 1774, the second; which pleasing poem is, indisputably, the work by which he will be the longest remembered. To a splendid edition of his Essay on Truth, published, by subscription, in 1776, he added some miscellaneous dissertations on Poetry and Music, Laughter and Ludicrous Composition, &c. In 1783, he published Dissertations, Moral and Critical (4to.); and

in 1786, appeared his Evidences of the Christian Religion (2 vols., 12mo.) In 1790, he published the first volume of his Elements of Moral Science, the second of which followed in 1793; and to the latter was appended a dissertation against the slave-trade. His last publication was an Account of the Life, Character and Writings of his eldest son, James Henry Beattie, an amiable and promising young man, who died at the age of 22, in 1790. This great affliction was followed, in 1796, by the equally premature death of his youngest and only surviving son, in his 18th year; which losses, added.o the melancholy loss of reason by his wife, wholly subdued his constitution; and, after two paralytic strokes, he died at Aberdeen, in August, 1803. B. was a religious and an amiable man, but constitutionally more calculated for a poet than a philosopher, and for a pleader than a controversialist. He was, however, a respectable, if not a strong writer, and might have been thought more of at present, had he been thought less of heretofore.

BEAUCAIRE; a small, well-built, commercial city of France, with 8000 inhabitants (lon. 4° 43′ E.; lat. 43° 48′ N.), in Lower Languedoc, now in the department of the Gard, on the right bank of the Rhone, opposite Tarascon, with which it communicates by a bridge of boats. It has a commodious harbor for vessels which ascend the river from the Mediterranean, 7 leagues distant, and is famous for its great fair (founded in 1217, by Raymond II, count of Toulouse), held yearly, from the 22d July, during 10 days. In former times, this fair was frequented by merchants and manufacturers from most countries of Europe, the Levant, and even from Persia and Armenia, so that many thousand booths were erected for foreigners in the adjoining valley. Before 1632, the fair of B. was exempt from all taxes, and the annual sale amounted to several million dollars. Since that time, B. has gradually declined, and its trade, the articles of which are the productions of the vicinity, was valued, in 1816, at 23,000,000 francs.

BEAUFORT; a seaport and post-town in a district of the same name, in South Carolina, on Port Royal island, at the mouth of the Coosawhatchie; 60 miles N. E. Savannah, 72 S. W. Charleston; lon. 80° 33′ W.; lat. 32° 31′ N.; population about 1000. It is a very pleasant and healthy town, with an excellent harbor, though but little commerce. It con

tains 3 churches and a seminary, which was incorporated as a college, endowed with funds amounting to 60 or $70,000, having a handsome edifice, and a library of 700 volumes, but it has hitherto assumed only the form of an academy.

BEAUFORT, Henry, legitimate brother of Henry IV, king of England, was made bishop of Lincoln, whence he was translated to Winchester. He was also nominated chancellor of the kingdom, and sent ambassador to France. In 1426, he received a cardinal's hat, and was appointed legate in Germany. In 1431, he crowned Henry VI in the great church of Paris. He died at Winchester, 1447. He was a haughty, turbulent prelate, and Shakspeare is considered as giving a true portrait of him, when he describes his last scene.

BEAUHARNAIS, Alexander, viscount; born in 1760, in Martinique; served with distinction, as major, in the French forces under Rochambeau, which aided the U. States in their revolutionary war; married Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie, who was afterwards the wife of Napoleon. At the breaking out of the French revolution, he was chosen a member of the national assembly, of which he was, for some time, president, and which he opened, after the king's departure, with the following words:-Messieurs, le roi est parti cette nuit: passons à l'ordre du jour. In 1792, he was general of the army of the Rhine, and, in 1793, was appointed minister of war. In consequence of the decree re noving men of noble birth from the army, he retired to his country-seat. He was falsely accused of having promoted the surrender of Mentz, and was sentenced to death, July 23, 1794, when 34 years old. (For information respecting his son Eugene, viceroy of Italy, see Eugene; respecting his daughter Hortense, see Louis Bonaparte; and respecting his elder brother, François Beauharnais, see the next article.)

BEAUHARNAIS, François, marquis de; born at La Rochelle, Aug. 12, 1756; voted with the right side in the national assembly. He viclently opposed the motion of his younger brother, the viscount Alexander, to take from the king the chief command of the army, and would not listen to any of the amendments proposed, saying, Il n'y a point d'amendement avec l'honneur. He was called, in consequence of this, le féal Beauharnais sans. amendement. In 1792, with the count d'Hervilly, the baron de Viomenil and others, he formed the project of a new

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flight of the royal family; but the arrest of his companion, the baron Chambon, prevented the execution of the plan. He was appointed major-general in the army of the prince of Condé, and wrote, in 1792, to the president of the national assembly, protesting against their unlawful treatment of the king, and offering to appear himself among his defenders. When Bonaparte became first consul, the marquis sent him a letter, in which he exhorted him, by the glory which he would gain by such a course, to restore the sceptre to the house of Bourbon. The empress Josephine married her niece, the daughter of the marquis, to the emperor's aid, Lavalette (q. v.), and effected the recall of the marquis. Appointed senator, and ambassador to the court of Spain, he united, in 1807, with the prince of the Asturias (now Ferdinand VII), against the prince of peace, and fell into disgrace with Napoleon, who banished him. After the restoration, he returned to Paris, where he died, Jan. 10, 1819.

BEAUMARCHAIS, Pierre Augustin Caron de; born at Paris, 1732; son of a watchmaker, who destined him for his trade. He early gave striking proofs of his mechanical and also of his musical talents. He was afterwards the teacher on the harp of the daughters of Louis XV, and was admitted into their society. By a rich marriage, he laid the foundation of his immense wealth. He now aspired to literary reputation. His Eugenie appeared in 1767; Les deux Amis in 1770. The first still holds its place on the stage. He showed all his talent in his lawsuit against Goesman and La Blache, when he wrote against the former (who belonged to the parlament Maupeou, so called, which was engaged in a dispute with the ministry) his celebrated Memoires (Paris, 1774), which entertained all France. Had he remained more quiet, he probably would have gained his process. The fame of his Memoires alarmed even Voltaire, who was jealous of every kind of glory. The Barber of Seville and the Marriage of Figaro have given him a permanent reputation. Shortly before the revolution, he was involved in the process against the banker Kornmann. In 1792, he wrote La Mère coupable, but never regained his former fame. He was once more in his true element in his memoir Mes six Époques. He relates, in that work, the dangers to which he was exposed, in a revolution, where a celebrated name talent and riches, were sufficient

causes of proscription. He still possessed, at the age of more than sixty, all the vigor of his youth, and had lost nothing but his gayety. His contract to supply the U. States with military stores, during their revolutionary war, had increased his fortune, of which he always made a noble use; but he lost about a million livres by his famous edition of the works of Voltaire, the very imperfect execution of which was not answerable to the immense cost. He lost still more, at the end of 1792, by his attempt to provide the French army with 60,000 muskets. Discontented with the present, despairing of the future, wearied with struggling against the revolution and his creditors for the ruins of his wealth, he died, at the age of 69 years, without any particular disease, in May, 1799. His biography appeared in 1802; and, in 1809, an edition of his works, in 7 vols.-B. was a singular instance of versatility of talent, being at once an artist, politician, projector, merchant and dramatist. He was passionately attached to celebrity. His Marriage of Figaro excited one of those extraordinary sensations, for which Paris has always been remarkable. The English modifications and versions of this comedy convey but a slight notion of the mischievous subtlety and deep spirit of intrigue in the original. B. left to his heirs a claim against the U. States of a million of francs for supplies furnished during the war, which has been repeatedly presented to congress, but always rejected on the ground that B. acted only as the agent of the French government, from whom he received funds to that amount.

BEAUMONT, Francis, and FLETCHER, John; two dramatic writers. The former was born in 1585, studied at Oxford, and died in 1616; the latter was born at London in 1576, and died there, in 1625, of the plague. Animated by the same inclination, they both devoted themselves to poetry. Their plays, about 50, appeared under their joint names (London, 1679, and lately, 1812, in 14 vols.), and it is impossible now to determine their respective shares in these productions. According to the testimony of some of their contemporaries, Fletcher was the inventing genius, while Beaumont, though the younger, was more distinguished for maturity and correctness of judgment. Shakspeare was their model, and, like him, they intermix pathetic and low comic scenes; but their attempts to surpass their model sometimes lead them into extravagances. The desire, also, of