diers refufing out of fuperftition to cross, be fnatched an enfign out of the hands of the bearer, and paled over, by which his army was encou raged to follow. He was the firft Roman who ever proceeded fo far, and ventured to crois. The reafon of the appellation, according to Strabo is, that in a military expedition a fedition arifing between the Celtici and Turduli after crolling that river, in which the general was flain, they remained difperfed there; and from this circumftance it came to be called the River of Lethe or Oblivion. It is now called LIMA.

-For with the heart man believeth unto righteoufnefs, and with the mouth confeffion is made unto falvation. Romans. 3. With the particle in to hold as an object of faith.-Believe in the Lord your God, fo fhall you be established. 2 Chron. 4. With the particle upon: to truft, to place full confidence in ; to rest upon with faith.-To them gave he power to become the fons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John. 5. I be ieve, is fometimes ufed as a way of flightly noting fome want of certainty or exactnefs.-Though they are, I believe, as high as moft fteeples in England, yet a perfon, in his drink, fell down without any further hurt than the breaking of an arm. Addifon on Italy.

(1.) * BELIEVER. n. f. [from believe.] 1. He that believes, or gives credit.-Difcipline began to enter into conflict with churches, which, in extremity, had been believers of it. Hocker. 2. A profetor of Chriftianity.-Infidels themfelves did difcern in matters of life, when believ rs did well, when otherwife. Hooker.-If he which writeth, do that which is forcible, how fhould he which read<th, he thought to do that, which, in itself, is of no force to work belief, and to fave believers? Hooker.-Myfteries held by us have no power, omp, or wealth, but have been maintained by the univerfal body of true believers, from the days of the apoftles, and will be to the refurrection; heither will the gates of hell prevail against them. Swift.

(2.) BELIEVERS, in church history, an appellation given, toward the clofe of the first century, to thofe Chriftians who had been admitted into the church by baptifm, and inftructed in all the myfteries of religion. They had alfo accefs to all parts of divine worf, and were authorifed to vote in the ecclefiaftical affèmblies. They were thus called in contradiftinction to the catechumens who had not been baptized, and were debarred from thefe privileges.

*BELIEVINGLY. adv. [from To believe] After thefe privileges.

BELIKE. adv. [from like, as by liklihood] 1. Probably; liklely; perhaps.-There come out of the fame woods a horrible foul bear, which fearing, belike, while the lion was prefent,, came furiously towards the place where I was. Sidney. --Lord Angelo belike, thinking me remifs in my office, awakens me with this unwonted putting on. Shakespeare. 2. It is fometimes ufed in a fenfe of irony: as, It may be fuppofed.-We think belike, that he will accept what the meaneft of of them would difdain. Hooker.-God appointed. the fea to one of them, and the land to the other, because they were fo great, that the fea could not hold them both; or elfe belike if the fea had been large enough, we might have gone a fithing for elephants. Brereawood on Languages.

BELINGELA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the MALUM INSANUM, or mad apple. BELINUS, in fabulous hiftory, one of the ancient kings of Britain, faid to have been the founder of Billingfgate.

BELIO, in ancient geography, a river of Lufitania, called otherwife Limzas, Limeas, Limius, and Lethe or the River of Oblivion: the boundary of the expidition of Decimus Brutus. The fol

BELISARIUS, general of the emperor Jufti an's army, who overthrew the Perfians in the Ealt, the Vandals in Africa, and the Goths in Italy. See ROME. But after all his great exploits, he was falfely accused of a confpiracy against the em peror. The real confpirators had been detected and feized, with daggers hidden under their gar ments. One of them died by his own hand, and the other was dragged from the fanctuary. Prefed by remorfe, or tempted by the hopes of fate. ty, he accufed two officers of the household of Belifarius; and torture forced them to declare that they had acted according to the fecret inftructions of their patron. Pofterity will not haftily believe, that an hero who in the vigour of life had difdained the fairest offers of ambition and revenge, should stoop to the murder of his prince, whom he could not long expect to furvive. His followers were impatient to fly; but fight mut have been fupported by rebellion, and he had lived enough for nature and for glory. Belifarius appeared before the council with lefs fear than in dignation: after 40 years fervice, the emperor had prejudged his guilt; and injuftice was fanctifed by the prefence and authority of the patriarch. The life of Belifarius was Ipared: but his fortunes were fequeftered; and, from December to July, he was guarded as a prifoner in his own palace. At length his innocence was acknowledged; his freedom and honours were reftored; and death, which might be haftened by refentment and grief, removed him from the world about 8 months af ter his deliverance. That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread, is a fiction of later times; which has obtained credit, or rather favour, as a ftrange example of the vi ciffitudes of fortune.-The fource of this idle fable may be derived from a mifcellaneous work of the 12th century, the Chiliads of John Tzetzes, a monk. He relates the blindncfs and beggary of Belifarius in ten verfes Chiliad III. N° 88. 339348. in Corp. Poet. Græc. tom. ii. p. 311.) This romantic tale was imported into Italy with the language and M. S. S. of Greece; repeated before the end of the 15th century by Crinitus, Ponta nus, and Volaterranus; attacked by Alciat for the honour of the law, and defended by Baronius (A. D. 561. N° 2, &c.) for the honour of the church. Tzetzes himself had read in other chro nicles, that Belifarius did not lofe his fight, and that he recovered his fame and fortunes. The ftatue in the Villa Borghese at Rome, in a fitting pofture, with an open hand, which is vulgariy given to Belifarius, may be afcribed with more dignity to Auguftus in the act of propitiating Ne metis. (Winkleman, Hift. de l' Art, tom. iii. p. 266.)

BELISTON,

BELISTON, a village in Lincolnshire, N. of Holbeth.

.7% BELITTLE. v. a. To diminish; to make any thing of a fmaller fize than ufual. In this laft fenfe, it is chiefly ufed by Buffon, in his account of America, where he very erroneously accufes nature of belittling her productions.

* BELIVE. adj. [bilive, Sax. probably from bi and life, in the fente of vivacity; fpeed; quicknefs.] Speedily; quickly; a word out of ufe.

By that fame way the direful dames to drive Their mournful chariot, fill'd with rusty blood, And down to Pluto's houfe are come belive. Fairy Queen. BELKIRK, a village in the county of Northumberland, on the borders of Scotland.

(1. 1.) * BELL. n. f. [bel, Saxon ; fuppofed, by Skinner, to come from pelvis, Lat. a bafin. See BALL.] 1. A veffel, or hollow body of caft metal, formed to make a noife by the act of a clapper, hammer, or fome other inftrument ftriking against it. Bells are in the towers of churches, to cail the congregation together.

Your flock affembled by the bell, Encircled you to hear with rev'rence. Shakelp. Get thee gone, and dig my grave thyfelf, And bid the merry bells ring to thy ear, Then thou art crowned, not that I am dead. Shake peare. -Four bells admit 24 changes in ringing, and five bells 120. Holder's Elements of Speech.--He has no one neceffary attention to any thing, but the bell, which calls to prayers twice a day. Addif. Spec. 1. It is used for any thing in the form of a bell, as the cups of flowers.-

Where the bee fucks, there fuck I, In a cowflip bell I lie. Shakefo. Tempeft. 3. A fmall hollow globe of metal perforated, and containing in it a felid ball; which, when it is haken, by bounding against the fides, gives a found-As the ox hath his yoke, the horfe his curb, and the faulcon his bells, fo hath man his defires. Shakefp. As you Like It. 4. To bear the bell. To be the firft; from the wether, that carries a bell among the theep, or the first horfe of a drove that has bells on his collar.-The Italians have carried away the bell from all other nations, as may appear both by their books and works. Hakeawell. 5. To bake the bells. A phrafe, in Shakespeare, taken from the bells of a bawk.

Neither the king, nor he that loves him beft, The proudeft he that holds up Lancaster, Dares stir a wing, if Warwick shakes his bells. Shakefp. (2.) BELL, CONSTITUENT PARTS OF A. Thefe are the body or barrel, the clapper on the infide, and the ear or cannon by which it hangs to a large beam of wood. The matter of which it is ufually made is a compofition called BELL-METAL. The thickness of a bell's edge, is ufually one 15th of the diameter, and its height 12 times its thickness. The best founders have a diapafon, or bell fcale, wherewith they measure the fize, thickness, weight, and tone, of their bells. For the method of calting bells, fee FOUNDERY.

(3.) BELLS, ANTIQUITY OF. The ufe of bells is very ancient, as well as extenfive. We find

them among Jews, Greeks, Romans, Chriftians, and Heathens, varioufly applied; as on the necks of men, beafts, birds, horfes, and theep: but chiefly hung in buildings, either religious, as in churches, temples, and monafteries; or civil, as in houfes, markets, and baths; or military, as in camps and frontier towns.-Among the Jews it was ordained, that the lower part of the blue tunic which the high prieft wore, when he performed religious ceremonies, fhould be adorned with pomegranates and gold bells, intermixed equally and at equal diftances. As to the number of the bells worn by the high priest, the fcripture is filent; and authors are not agreed: but the facred hiftorian mentions the ufe and intent of them, in Exod. xxviii. 33-35. The kings of Perfia are faid to have had the hems of their robes adorned like the Jewith high-priests with pomegranates and gold bells. In the opinion of Caltnet, the highprieft wore little bells on the hem of his robe, as a kind of public notice that he was going to the fanétuary: for as, in the king of Perfia's court, no one was fuffered to enter the royal apartments without giving notice thereof by the found of fomething; fo the high-prieft, out of refpect to the divine prefence, did, by the found of little bells faftened to the bottom of his robe, de fire as it were permiffion to enter, that the found of the bells might be heard, and he not be punished with death for intrufion. The figure of thefe bells is not known to us. The prophet Zacharial (xiv. 20.) fpeaks of bells hung to war horses. Among the Greeks, thofe who went the nightly rounds in camps or garrifons, carried with them a little bell, which they rung at each centry box to fee that the foldiers on watch were awake. A codonophorous or bell-man alfo walked in funeral procefions, at a diftance before the corps, not only to keep of the crowd, but to advertife the flamen dialis to keep out of the way for fear of being polluted by the fight, or by the funerary mulic. The priest of Proferpine at Athens, called kierophantus, rung a bell to call the people to facrifice. There were alfo bells in the houfes of great men to call up the fervants each morning. Zonaras affures us, that bells were hung with, whips on the triumphal chariots of their victorious generals, to put them in mind that they were ftill liable to public juftice.-Bells were put on the necks of criminals going to execution, that perfons might be warned by the found to get out of the way of so ill an omen, as the fight of the hangman, or the condemned criminal, who was going to be facrificed to the dii manes. Of bells hung on the necks of brutes, exprefs mention is made in Phædrus; Celfa cervice eminens, Clarumque collo jačluns tintinnabulum. Taking thefe bells away was conftrued by the civil law, theft; and if the beaft was loft by this means, the perfon who took away the bells was to make fatisfaction.

(4.) BELLS, CAUSES OF THE SOUND OF. Bells are ranked by musicians among the musical inftruments of percuffion. The found of a bell is conjectured to confift in a vibratory motion of its parts, much like that of a mutical chord. The ftroke of the clapper mult neceffarily change the figure of the bell, and of a round make an oval:

Lut

but the metal having a great degree of elasticity, that part will return back again which the ftroke drove fartheft off from the centre, and that even fome small matter nearer the centre than before; fo that the two parts, which before were extremes of the longest diameter, then become thofe of the fhorteft; and thus the external furface of the bell undergoes alternate changes of figure, and by that means gives that tremulous motion to the air in which the found confifts. M. Perrault maintains that the found of the fame bell or chord is a compound of the founds of the feveral parts thereof, fo that where the parts are homogeneous, and the dimenfions of the figure uniform, there is fuch a perfect mixture of all these founds as conftitutes one uniform, fmooth, even found; and the contrary circumstances produce harfhnefs. This he proves from the bells differing in tone according to the part ftruck; and yet firike it any where, there is a motion of all the parts. He therefore confiders bells as a compound of an infinite number of rings, which according to their different dimensions have different tones, as chords of different lengths have; and when ftruck, the vibrations of the parts immediately ftruck determine the tone, being fupported by a fufficient number of confonant tones in the other parts. Bells are obferved to be heard farther placed on plains than on hills; and still farther in valleys than on plains: the reafon of which will not be difficult to affign, if it be confidered that the higher the fonorous body is, the rarer is its medium; confequently, the lefs proper vehicle it is to convey it to a diftance. (5) BELLS, CHINESE. Nankin in China was anciently famous for the largeneis of its bells; but their enormous weight brought down the tower, the whole building fell to ruin, and the bells have ever fince lain on the ground. One of thefe bells is near 12 English feet high, the diameter 71, and its circumference 23; its figure almoft cylindric, except for a fwelling in the middle; and the thicknefs of the metal about the edges 7 inches. From the dimentions of this bell, its weight is computed at 50,000 lb. which is more than double the weight of that of Erfort, faid by Father Kircher to be the greatest bell in the world. Thefe bells were caft by the first emperor of the preceding dynafty, about 300 years ago. They have each their name; tehoui, the hanger; che, the cater; choui, the fleeper; fi, the will. Father le Compte adds, that there are 7 other bells in Pekin, caft in the reign of Youlo, which weigh 120,000 lb. each. But the founds even of their biggeft bells are very poor; being ftruck with a wooden clapper, inftead

of an iron one.

(6.) BELLS, CHURCH, ACCOUNT OF. On the origin of church bells, Mr Whittaker, in his Hiftory of Manchester, obferves, That bells being used among other purpofes, by the Romans to fignify the times of bathing, were naturally applied by the Chriftians of Italy to denote the hours of devotion, and fummon the people to church. The firit application to this purpofe is, by Polydore, Virgil and others, aferibed to Paulinus bithop of ola, a city of Campania, about the year 400. Hence, it is faid, the names note and compone were given them; the one referring to the city, the other to the country. Though others fay

they took the latter of these names, not from their being invented in Campania, but because it was here the manner of hanging and balancing them, now in ufe, was firft practifed; at least that they were hung on the model of a fort of balance invented or ufed in Campania; for in Latin writers we find campana ftatera, for a steel-yard; and in the Greek xaxanlin, and ponderare," to weigh." In Britain, bells, were used in churches before the conclufion of the 7th century, in the monaftic fo cieties of Northumbria, and as early as the 6th, even in thofe of Caledonia. And they were there fore ufed from the firft erection of parish churches among us. Thofe of France and England appear to have been furnished with feveral bells. In the time of Clothair II. king of France, A.D. 610, the army of that king was frighted from the fiege of Sens, by ringing the bells of St Stephen's church. The 2d excerption of Egbert, about A. D. 750, which is adopted in a French Capitulary of 801, commands every pricft, at the proper hours, to found the bells of his church, and then to go through the facred offices to God. And the coun cil of Euham, in 1011, requires all the inulets for fins to be expended in the reparation of the church, clothing and feeding the minifter of God, and the purchase of church vestments, church books, and church bells. These were fometimes compofed of iron in France; and in England, as formerly at Rome, were frequently made of brafs. And as early as the 9th century, there were many caft of a large fize and deep note. Ingulphus mentions, that Turketulus abbot of Croyland, who died a bout A. D 870, gave a great bell to the church of that abbey, which he named Guthlac; and afterwards fix others, viz. two which he called Bartholomeru and Betelin, two called Turkettul and Tatquin, and two named Pega and Bega, all which rang together; the fame author f.ys, Non erat tune tanta confonantia campanarum in tota Anglia. Not long after, Kinfeus, archbishop of York, gave two great bells to the church of St John at Beverly, and at the fame time provided that other churches in his diocefe fhould be furnished with bells.— Mention is made by St Aldhem, and William of Malmesbury, of bells given by St Dunftan to the churches in the weft. The number of bells in every church gave occafion to the curious and fingular piece of architecture in the campanile or bell-tower; an addition, which is more fufceptible of the grander beauties of architecture than any other part of the edifice, and is generally therefore the principal or rudiments of it. It was the conftant appendage to every parish church of the Saxons, and is actually mentioned as fuch in the laws of Athelftan. The Greek Chriftians are usually faid to have been unacquainted with bells till the 9th century, when their conftruction was firft taught them by a Venetian. But it is not true that the ufe of bells was entirely unknown in the ancient eaftern churches, and that they called the people to church, as at prefent, with wooden mallets. Leo Allatius, in his differtation on the Greck temples, proves the contrary from feverai ancient writers. He fays bells first began to be difuted among them after the taking of Conftan tinople by the Turks; who, it feems, prohibited then, left their found fhould difturb the repole

of fouls, which, according to them, wander in
the air. He adds, that they ftill retain the use of
bells in places remote from the intercourfe of the
Turks; particularly, very ancient ones in Mount
Athos. F. Simon thinks the Turks prohibited the
Chriftians the ufe of bells, rather from political
than religious reafons; as the ringing of bells might
ferve as a fignal for the execution of revolts, &c.
(7.) BELLS, CHURCH, BAPTISM OF. In the
times of popery, bells were baptized and anoint
ed oleo chrifmatis: they were exorcifed, and bief-
fed by the bithop; from a belief, that, when there
ceremonies were performed, they had a power to
drive the devil out of the air, to calm tempefts,
to extinguish fire, and even to revive the dead.
The ritual for thefe ceremonies is contained in the
Roman pontifical; and it was ufual in their bap-
tifm to give to bells the name of fome fiint. In
Chauncy's history of Hertfordshire, page 383, there
is a relation of the baptifm of a fet of bells in Italy
with great ceremony, a thort time before the wri-
ting that book. The bells of Ofney abbey, near
Oxford, were very famous; their feveral names
were Douce, Clement, Austin, Hautefter, or rather
Hauteleri, Gabriel, and John. The bells of the
parish church of Winnington, in Bedford/hire, had
their names caft about the verge of every one in
particular, with thefe rhiming hexameters:
Nomina Campanis hæc indita funt quoque noftris.
1. Hoc fignum Petri pulfatur nomine Chrifti.
2. Nomen Magdalena campana fonate melode.
3. Sit nomen Domini benedictum femper in eum.
4. Mufa Raphaelis fonat auribus Immanulis.
5. Sum Rofa pulfata mundique Moria vocata.
Weev. Fun. 122.
By an old chartulary, once in the poffeffion of
Weever the antiquary, it appears that the bells
of the priory of Little Dunmow in Elex were,
A. D. or, new caft, and baptized by the fol-
lowing names:

Prima in honore Sandi Michaelis Archangeli.
Secunda in honore S. Johannis Evangeliiti.
Tertia in homore S. Johannis Baptifti.
Quarta in honore Affumptionis beatæ Maria:
Quinta in honore faneli Trinitatis, et omnium
Ib. 633.

fanctorum.

UPON.

(8.) BELLS, CHURCH, INSCRIPTION Weever in his Funeral Monuments, (492.) mentions, that "Belts had frequently thefe infcrip

tions on them:

"But Henry the eight

"Will bait me of my weight."

This laft diftich alludes to a fact mentioned by Stow in his furvey of London, ward of Farring don Within, to wit, that near to St Paul's fchool ftood a clochier, in which were four bells called Jesus's bells, the greatest in all England, against which Sir Miles Partridge staked L. roo, and wor them of Henry VIII. at a caft of dice. Abroad, however, there are bells of greater magnitude.— In the freeple of the great church at Roin in Normandy there is a bell, (unless it has been melted and turned into cannon, as others have been du ring the late revolutionary war,) with the follow ing infcription :

Je fuis George de Ambois,
Qui trente cinque mille pois.
Mes lui qui me pefera,
Trente fix mille me trouvera.

I am George of Ambois,
Thirtie five thoufand in pois
But he that thall weigh me,
Thirtie fix thoufand fhall find me.

Ivid's

And it is a common tradition that the bells of King's-college chapel, in the university of Cambridge, were taken by Henry V. from fome church in France, after the battle of Agincourt. They were taken down fome years ago, and fold to Phelps the bell-founder in White Chapel, who melted them.

(9.) BELLS, DIFFERENT KINDS OF, In the ancient monafteries we find fix kinds of bells enumerated by Durandus, viz. Squilla, rung in the refectory; cymbalum, in the coifter; nola in the choir; no!ula or dupla, in the clock; campana, thus has much the famine; only that for fquilla he in the fteeple; and gnun in the tower. Beleputs tintinnabulum, and places the campana in the tower, and campanella in the cloifter. Others place the tintinnabulum or tinniolum in the refectory or dormitory; and add another bell called corrigiuncula, rung at the time of giving difcipline to call the monks to be flogged. The cymbalum is fometimes alfo faid to have been rung in the cloifter, to call the monks to meat.

(10.) BELLS, ELECTRICAL, are used in a varie ty of entertaining experiments by electricians.— vention, confifts of 3 fmall bells fufpended from The apparatus, which is originally of German ina narrow plate of metal; the two outermoft by chains and that in the middle, from which a chair paffes to the floor, by a fiiken fring. Two fmail

knobs of bras are alfo hung by fiken firings, one

on each fide of the bell in the middle, which ferve

for clappers. When this apparatus is connected fufpended by the chains will be charged, attract with an electrified conductor, the outerinoft belly the clappers and be ftruck by them. The clap

pers becoming electrified likewife will be repelled by thefe bells, and attracted by the middle bell, and difcharge themfelves upon it by means of the chain extending to the floor. After this they thus, by ftriking the bells alternately, occafion a will be again attracted by the outermoft belis ; and ringing, which may be continued at pleasure. Flathes of light will be feen in the dark between Ttt