theory be assented to, that Horace wrote only one kind of poetry at a time, for though the satires were published first, yet some of the odes which Bentley places last, were written in the poet's youth. Fynes Clinton has overthrown some of Bentley's chronology, and though it has been well canvassed by such continental scholars as Grotefend, Walckenaer, Weber, and Passow, it is still unshaken in many of its positions.
Bentley's next publication did him credit. It was a reply to Collins on Freethinking. It appeared in 1713, under the assumed name of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis. After scowling on the sophistry, and holding up to scorn and ridicule the fallacies of the infidel, he proceeds to what lay more especially within his own province as a scholar and a critic. The publication of Mill's New Testament had, by its great mass of various readings, excited the fears of many, and Whitby had advertised a reply or examen. Collins made his own of these timid and ignorant lucubrations, professing that such discrepancies destroyed all faith in the integrity of the divine word. Bentley's reply is a masterpiece, showing that every ancient author has numerous varieties of readings,—that these are multiplied with the number of MSS. in which such ancient writings are found,—that confidence in a Greek or Latin classic is not shaken by such variations, that these documents of heathen antiquity have, for their size and the number of copies of them, vastly more differences than the New Testament, and that, therefore, the results of critical investigation, showing the errors and emendations of thoughtless or pedantic scribes, are not incompatible with the authenticity and credibility of the sacred scriptures. In 1716 Bentley addressed a letter to Archbishop Wake, proposing to restore the text of the New Testament to the state in which it was at the period of the council of Nice. His critical principles were on the whole correct,—that the age of a MS. gives, ceteris paribus, a proportionate value to its readings, and that, therefore, the older a manuscript is, its readings are of the higher value. Bentley had collated with great care the Codex Alexandrinus, now in the British museum, and he had also a collation of the Vatican Codes at Rome, made for him first by an Italian, and then by his own nephew. Wetstein, who had seen him in England, made him notes from the codex of Ephrem at Paris. A specimen of the proposed edition was also published; but Dr. Middleton and others fiercely assaulted the enterprise, poured unsparing contempt on the plan, and traduced the editor. The editor defended himself in his own style, for he was vastly superior to his assailants, who did not understand the subject, and had not even detected the weak points of Bentley's system. The contest was pitiable; and in squabbling about the letter of inspiration, they forgot the spirit of truth and charity which it inculcates. The conclusion of Bentley's reply to his anonymous assailants is so characteristic that we give it: "If they will a ttack an edition before it's begun, let them put their names to the work. If they do not, they shall have no answer; and if they do, they will need none." But such contests, along with his feuds with his college and with the university, retarded the work, and the materials amassed were never used. They were left to his nephew who did nothing with them, but returned the money to the subscribers. In 1726 Bentley published an edition of Terence, Phædrus, and Publius Syrus, with an excellent "Discursus on Latin metres." This brought him into collision with Bishop Hare on the metres of Terence, and the contest provoked the calm and utilitarian Sir Isaac Newton to observe, that "two dignified clergymen, instead of minding their duty, had fallen out about a play-book." At the suggestion of Queen Caroline, and at the age of seventy, he next tried his powers on Milton's Paradise Lost, and, as might have been expected, signally failed. He had no poetic taste—had not made English poetry his study—knew nothing of the earlier English bards, and, therefore, his criticisms are often mistakes, and his emendations ludicrous blunders. Two years later the veteran arch-critic set himself to revise the text of Homer, but his labours were interrupted by a stroke of paralysis. His notes have, however, been of some advantage to subsequent scholars. An edition of Manilius, with a preface by his nephew, was Bentley's last production.
It must be on all sides admitted, that Bentley stands in the foremost rank of scholars. None of his contemporaries surpassed him in varied, skilful, and profound erudition. His conjectures were often happy restorations of the text, for such was his acquaintance with idiom and usage—such his intuitive sagacity, and so much could he identify himself with his author, that he could divine with singular felicity what words he had employed. His adventurous labours led the way in this field of erudition, and many, especially on the continent, have followed in his steps. He maintained a close connection with continental scholars, and sent some learned notes to Grævius for an edition of Callimachus. Editions of the Greek lexicographers early occupied his attention, though his designs were not carried out. He took, however, an active interest in Kuster's edition of Suidas; and, with his sage advice, he directed the studies of Hemsterhuis. He commented severely on Le Clerc's blunders, in his edition of the fragments of Menander and Philemon, and by this procedure gratified Burmann, and roused the enmity of Gronovius. But with all this industry and correspondence, and all these superb qualifications, he was impetuous, arrogant, and overbearing, and his works are tainted by these miserable elements of his character. His contests with the university show him to be proud and grasping, indomitable in energy, and full of resources. We cannot go the length of Dr. Parr and say, in reference to his disputes with his college, that "he was eminently right and the college infamously wrong." But we have no hesitation in avowing our belief, that he was vastly superior to his antagonists, that his aims were worthy of his high position, and that if some of his methods were sweeping and unconstitutional, his objects were unselfish and magnificent. Some of the reforms which he introduced still remain in Trinity. But he was impatient of control, was very prone to self-assertion, though he does not seem to have been marked by any of those jealousies and errors which degraded and exasperated so many of his literary compeers. His mind, however, was coarse in its texture, his manners were repulsive, and he was utterly unscrupulous in gaining his ends. His grandson, Richard Cumberland, acknowledges that "his ordinary style of conversation was naturally lofty, and his frequent use of thee and thou carried with it a kind of dictatorial tone." It is said that he refused a fellowship to an orphan grandchild of his early patron. Bishop Stillingfleet, and preferred a far inferior candidate. Bentley's labours were often misunderstood in his own time, and the "awful Aristarch" is figured at length in the fourth book of the Dunciad, as—
" That mighty scholiast, whose unwearied pains
Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains,"
and who confesses—
" For Attic phrase in Plato let them seek,
I poach in Suidas for unlicensed Greek."
Bentley left a son and two daughters, one of whom married Denison Cumberland, bishop of Dromore, and was mother of Richard Cumberland, the well-known dramatist. Bentley's life has been written by Dr. Monk, the late bishop of Gloucester; his Letters have also been collected and edited, the last editor being Dr. Wordsworth; and his Works, in three volumes, have been recently published under the care of the Rev. A. Dyce.—J. E.
BENTLEY, Richard, son of the preceding, educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, and was reckoned an excellent scholar. He was on terms of intimacy with Horace Walpole, and was a friend of the poet Gray. But his habits were desultory, and none of his dramas or miscellaneous writings were of any permanent value. Died in 1782.
BENTLEY, Thomas, nephew of the great critic, was a fellow of Trinity, and published in 1713 the Text of his uncle's work on Horace. In 1718 he published an edition of Cicero de Finibus, and in 1741 an anonymous edition of Callimachus.
BENTZON, Adrien Benoni, was born at Tönsberg in 1777. Having finished his studies at Copenhagen, he adopted the profession of the law, and had an honourable place as one of the leaders in the literary movement in which his friends, Zens Baggesen and Adam Oehlenschlæger, were so prominent.
BENVENISTE or BENBENASTE, is the family name of several rabbinical writers. Ten of this name are mentioned by Fürst. Their works treat almost exclusively on ritual subjects. Samuel Benveniste seems to have attended to philosophical studies, as de' Rossi speaks of a translation made by this rabbi into Hebrew, of Boëthius' Consol. Phil. Meïr Benveniste wrote exegeses on the ancient Midrashim.—T. T.
BENVENUTO, G. Bat., surnamed l'Ortolano, died at Ferrara in 1625. He studied at Bologna under Bagnaccavallo. Pictures by him of "The Virgin and the Wise Men's Offering," are to be found in the churches of his native place.—W. T.
