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which was much admired in his time, but has not preserved its popularity. Pope is reported to have said of it, that "there are in it a great many flowers well worth gathering, and a man who has the art of stealing wisely will find his account in reading it." His biographer, however, confesses that he has generally preferred the effusions of fancy to the corrections of judgment, and is often florid and affected, obscure and perplexed. His Latin poems, although perhaps superior in style, are yet below the purity of the Augustan age. All his poetical efforts were the amusement of his leisure hours during the rebellion, by which he lost, besides his fellowship, some preferments which bishop Wren had bestowed on him, as the rectory of Kelshall in Hertfordshire in 1643, that of Elm with the chapel of Emneth in 1646, and the seventh canonry and prebend in the cathedral of Ely in 1647. And so zealous was bishop Wren for his interest and happiness, that he took him into his house as his domestic chaplain, and married him to his step-daughter in 1650. With her Mr. Beaumont retired to Tatingston-place, where they lived in a private manner until the restoration. On that event he took possession of his former livings, and was also admitted into the first list of his majesty's chaplains, and by his majesty's mandamus was created D. D. in 1660. In 1661 he removed, at bishop Wren's desire, to Ely, where he had the misfortune to lose his wife in 1662. In April of that year, on the resignation of Dr. Pearson, master of Jesus' college, Cambridge, the bishop of Ely appointed him successor, and in 1663, on the death of Dr. Hale, master of Peterhouse, he was removed to the headship of that college, which he governed with great care and liberality. The same year he was instituted to the rectory of Teversham near Cambridge, and in 1664 to that of Barley in Hertfordshire, where he alternately resided in the vacation months every summer, feeding the poor, instructing the ignorant, and faithfully discharging his pastoral charge. In 1665 he was drawn into a controversy with Dr. Henry More, who had advanced some doctrines in his "Mystery of Godliness," which our author thought subversive of our constitution in church and state, and productive of many evils to the Christian religion; Dr. More replied to this charge, but Dr. Beaumont received the thanks of the university for his services on this occasion. In 1670 he was elected to the divinity chair. In the course of his lec

tures, which he read for twenty-nine years, he went through the two epistles to the Romans and Colossians, with a view to explain the difficulties and controversies occasioned by some passages in them. In 1689, when the Comprehension was attempted, in order to unite the church and dissenters, he was one of the commissioners appointed for that purpose, but never took his place at the board, convinced of the little probability that such a scheme should succeed. He continued to discharge the several duties of his office, even when advanced to his eighty-fourth year, and preached before the university in turn, Nov. 5, 1699; but a high fever came on the same evening, which, with the addition of the gout in his stomach, proved fatal on the 23d of the same month. His biographer sums up his character in these words: "He was religious without bigotry, devout without superstition, learned without pedantry, judicious without censoriousness, eloquent without vanity, charitable without ostentation, generous without profusion, friendly without dissimulation, courteous without flattery, prudent without cunning, and humble without meanness." Cole informs us, that in 1662 he obtained, from the vicechancellor of Cambridge, a dispensation to eat flesh in Lent, as fish did not agree with his constitution; probably this was among the last instances of such a scruple in the Protestant church. His "Psyche" was reprinted, with many of the author's corrections, and the addition of four cantos, in 1702, by his son Charles Beaumont, A. M. of Peterhouse, who informs us that his father left all his works, critical and polemical, to the college, strictly forbidding the printing of any of them. In 1749 was published his lesser "Poems in English and Latin, with an appendix, containing some dissertations and remarks on the Epistle to the Colossians," 4to. To this is prefixed an account of his life, from which the present sketch has been taken. '

BEAUMONT DE PEREFIX. See PEREFIX.

Mr.

BEAUNE (FLORIMOND DE), the son of Florimond de Beaune, seigneur of Goulieux, was born at Blois in 1601, and having studied law, became counsellor of the presidial of Blois. He was most celebrated, however, for his skill in mathematics, which induced Descartes to pay him a visit, which de Beaune returned afterwards, and they frequently consulted one another on their pursuits. De Beaune in

1 Life ubi supra.-Cole's MS Athenæ in Brit, Mus.-Jacob's Lives, &c.

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vented many astronomical instruments, and some telescopes of great utility. He is also famous for a problem that bears his name; it consists in the construction of a curve, with conditions that render it extremely difficult. Descartes solved this problem; and de Beaune, animated by the praises of a man so celebrated, discovered a method of determining the nature of curves by the properties of their tangents. De Beaune died in 1652, in his fifty-first year. ' BEAURAIN (JOHN DE), an accurate military geographer, the descendant of an ancient family, was born at Aix in Issart in 1697, and at the age of nineteen went to Paris, where he studied geography under the celebrated Sanson, geographer to the king. His progress was so rapid, and his reputation so high, that at the age of twenty-five he was honoured with the same title. A perpetual almanac which he invented, and with which Louis XV. was much pleased, procured him the patronage of that prince, for whom he drew a great number of plans and charts. But his principal reputation rests on his topographical plans of the military kind, particularly his " Description topographique et militaire des campagnes de Flandre, depuis 1690 jus-. qu'en 1694," Paris, 1756, 3 vols. folio, drawn up from the memoirs of Vaultier and the marshal Luxembourg. He had also the honour of contributing to the education of the dauphin, for which a pension was conferred on him in 1756, and, as he had talents of the political kind, he was not unfrequently employed in negociations by cardinal de Fleury and Amelot. He died at Paris, Feb. 11, 1771. His son, the chevalier de Beaurain, who appears to have inherited his father's talents as a military draftsman, published "Cartes des campagnes de grande Condé en Flandre," Paris, fol. 1774; and in 1781, those of Turenne, with the descriptions of Grimoard, compiled from Turenne's original papers, the correspondence of Louis XIV. that of his ministers, and several other authentic memoirs, a most splendid folio, enriched with a great number of charts and plans, executed with uncommon fidelity, precision, and minuteness, so as to describe every motion of the armies in the most distinct manner.

BEURIEU (GASPARD GUILLARD DE), a French miscellaneous writer, entitled to some notice, was born at St. Paul

1 Moreri.-Dict. Hist.

Dict. Hist. See this last-mentioned volume described in Monthly Review, LXVII. p. 510.

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in Artois, July 9, 1728, and became noted at Paris for his oddities and his numerous writings. He affected great singularity in dress, and was not less remarkable for his bon mots and tart replies. When asked why he followed no profession, he said, "I have been too long enamoured of goodness and honour, to fix my affections on fortune." He used to say that "life was a continual epigram, to which death furnished the point." There is perhaps not much in these, and probably the other witticisms we have seen attributed to him derived their principal effect from his manner, or from the person or occasion when applied. He was, however, a man of great humanity, and particularly attached to children, employing himself for many years in instructing them, and at last he procured admission to the Normal school, that he might contribute his share to the general plan of public education. His writings are, 1. "L'Heureux citoyen," 1759, 12mo. 2. "Cours d'Histoire sacree et profane," 1763 and 1766, 2 vols. 12mo. 3. "Abrége

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de l'histoire des Insectes," Paris, 1764, 2 vols. 8vo. "L'Heureux viellard," a pastoral drama, 1769. 5. Cours d'histoire naturelle," Paris, 1770, 7 vols. 12mo. 6. "Varietes Litteraires," 1775, 12mo. 7. "De l'alaitement et de la premiere Education des Enfans," 1782, 12mo. 8. "L'Eleve de la Nature," Geneva,. 1790, 2 vols. 8vo, often reprinted. It contains an ingenious sketch, but not very happily filled up. 9. "L'Accord parfait, ou l'Equilibre physique et morale," Paris, 1793. 10. "Le Port-feuille Francais," &c. By all these literary labours, however, the author appears to have profited little, as he died in an hospital at Paris, Oct. 5, 1795.

BEAUSOBRE (ISAAC), an eminent Calvinist divine and ecclesiastical writer, was born at Niort in Upper Poitou, March 8, 1659, of a family originally of Provence, whose name was Bossart, which one of his ancestors changed to Beausobre, on taking refuge in Swisserland from the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. In his youth he had some favourable opportunities for rising in the world. M. de Vieuxfournaux, cousin-german to his father, strongly solicited him not to change his religion, but to study law, because in that case he had sufficient interest with Madame de Maintenon to recommend him to her, who would have made his fortune. But as he probably foresaw that the sacrifice of his religion must ultimately be the consequence, in order to secure him patronage of this kind, he withstood his rela

tion's solicitations, and pursued his original intention, that of qualifying himself for the church. Having finished his studies at Sauniur, he was ordained, by imposition of hands, at the age of twenty-one, in the last synod of Loudon, and had a congregation intrusted to him, to whom he officiated for three or four years, during which he married Claude Louisa Arnaudeau, whose father was pastor of the church' of Lusignan. The days of persecution approaching, M. de Beausobre's church was shut up, and having been so rash as to break it open, contrary to the orders of the court, he found it necessary to make his escape. At first he intended to have gone to England, but for some reasons, not mentioned in our authority, he preferred Holland, where he recommended himself to the favour of the princess of Orange, who appointed him chaplain to her daughter the princess of Anhalt-Dessau, and accordingly he went to Dessau in 1686. Here his situation was rendered peculiarly agreeable by the kindness of the princess, the esteem she conceived for, and the confidence she reposed in him; and here he appears to have applied himself to those studies, the produce of which appeared soon afterwards.

The first occasion of his becoming an author was the conduct of the duke of Saxe-Barby, who quitted the Lutheran communion, and printed a confession of his faith in 1688. A year after appeared, under the name of the theological faculty of Leipsic, a work in German, purporting to be "An inquiry into the motives which induced the duke of Saxe to separate from the Lutherans ;" and a Latin translation of it having been submitted to M. Beausobre, he perceived its weakness, and conceived it an act of justice in behalf of the more moderate part of the Lutherans, to make a public declaration of the doctrines of the reformers. Accordingly this his first work was entitled “Defense de la doctrine des Reformes," on the subjects of providence, predestination, grace, the Lord's supper, &c. printed at Magdeburgh, 1693. In this, while he speaks favourably of the moderate writers among the Lutherans, he censures the others for their bigotry against the Calvinists, or against any who differ from them in the least degree. His work was extremely well received, although this edition is full of typographical errors.

In 1693, on the death of John-George II. prince of Anhalt-Dessau, he pronounced a funeral oration, which was printed at Berlin, 1695, 4to, in the form of a "Sermon

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