of Bolognini and Guercino. He at first painted history, but latterly confined himself to portraits. He died about 1700, aged fifty-four.—W. T.
BERGSTRÄSSER, Johann Andreas Benignus, a distinguished German entomologist, was born at Idstein in Nassau, on the 21st December, 1732, and received his early education at the gymnasium of that town. In his eighteenth year, he left his native place, and went to study at Jena and Halle. He afterwards resided for about a year in Holland, and having returned to Germany, became rector of the Evangelical Lutheran Lyceum in Hanau, in the year 1760. In 1775 he obtained the position of professor of philosophy; in 1784 he was also appointed a consistorial councillor; and died at Hanau in 1812. Bergsträsser was a most learned scholar, and possessed such a vast amount of information on most branches of knowledge, that he seems to have been regarded by his contemporaries almost as a universal genius. His small scholastic works—"Vorschläge zur lateinischen Erziehung;" "Vorschläge zu einer allgemeinen Schulreformation;" "Beispiel einer Phraseologie, wie sie vielleicht in Schulen nicht nur zu dulden, sondern cinzuführen wäre," and others, published at Hanau in 1775, 1777, 1789, &c., contain excellent practical hints as to the mode of instruction and management to be pursued in gymnasia. Bergsträsser was one of the first to vindicate the title of natural history and mathematics to a place in the course of instruction communicated at the public schools of his country; and he himself wrote several valuable text-books for use in the schools, such as his "Elementary Algebra," and "Elementary Geometry," published at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1779 and 1789; and his "Decimal fractions and Logarithms" at Hanau in the latter year. Some of his scholars turned out first-rate mathematicians; amongst others, Langsdorff and Kopp. One of his principal literary undertakings was a great "Dictionary of the classical Greek and Roman writers, both sacred and profane, with illustrations of the arts and sciences relating to them;" of which the first volume appeared at Halle in 1772. This undertaking was, however, as might have been expected, too vast for the powers of any one man; and after the publication of the seventh volume (extending to the word Equus) in 1781, it was discontinued. It is, however, chiefly as an entomologist, that Bergsträsser's reputation has extended beyond the limits of his own country. His works, in this department of natural history, certainly entitle him to an honourable place amongst the entomologists of his time. His earliest entomological work is entitled "Nomenclature and descriptions of the insects of Hanau-Münzenberg," and the neighbouring districts, published at Hanau, in 3 volumes 4to, illustrated with 72 coloured plates, in the years 1777-79. A second work, written like the preceding in German, and called "Figures and descriptions of all the European Butterflies," appeared in three parts, at the same place, in 1779 and 1782; of this a Latin translation was published in the latter year, under the title of "Icones Papilionum diurnorum." Bergsträsser also communicated several memoirs on insects, chiefly lepidoptera, to the Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde of Berlin, of which he was an honorary member, and to the Hanauischen Magazin. Bergsträsser appears to have continued his classical labours, even at the time when these large entomological works were in preparation; and about the year 1781, he became editor of the new translations of the Roman classic authors, the publication of which commenced at that period, at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. In this task, however, he showed but little taste; and his own translation of "Cornelius Nepos," published in 1782, was not considered as at all satisfactory, until the appearance of its third edition, thoroughly revised by N. G. Eichhoff in 1815. The notes appended by Bergsträsser to the various translations, are, however, regarded as of considerable value. Besides these scientific and classical investigations, Bergsträsser found time to pay considerable attention to the subject of telegraphs, and even went so far as to invent a new system of signals, to which he gave the name of "Synthematographie," explaining this term as "the art of writing by preconcerted signals, just as well as the articulate sounds of a language may be committed to paper." Upon this subject he wrote several memoirs, of which the most important was published at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1795; but his method, although it was considered by many to be to a certain extent preferable to those previously in use, did not altogether answer the expectations which Bergsträsser had excited with regard to it, and from this or some other cause, met with an unfavourable reception.—W. S. D.
BÉRIGARD or BEAUREGARD, Claude Guillermet, seigneur de, was born at Moulins, some say in 1578, and others in 1591, became professor of philosophy and medecine first at Pisa and then at Padua. His most famous work, entitled "Circulus Pisanus," is a dialogue upon cosmogony between an adherent of the atomic theory of Anaximander and an Aristotelian, the latter maintaining, the former denying that the power of God was necessary to the formation of the world.—J. D. E.
BERING, Vitus, a Swedish poet and historian, born at Wiburg, Jutland, in 1617; died in 1675. He wrote on Danish history. In poetry he succeeded in elegy and epigram, but his epics are cold and languid.
BERINGER, Joachim, a German protestant theologian of the seventeenth century, known also by the names of Joachim Ursinus and Salmuth. He wrote against the jesuits, and in defence of the reformed faith.
BERINGER, Michael, a learned German, born at Uhlbach in 1566; died in 1625. He was professor of Hebrew at Tübingen. His principal works are grammars of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues.
BERINGHEN, Jacques Louis, marquis de, chief equerry of Louis XIV., and a distinguished cavalry officer, born in 1651; died in 1723. About the year 1708, a party of French protestants, in the service of Holland, undertook to carry off the dauphin from Sevres; but falling in with the chief equerry, who quartered the royal arms on his carriage, they mistook that functionary for the prince, and were on the point of transporting him to Holland, when he was rescued by some troops of the royal household.—J. S., G.
BERINGTON, Joseph, an ecclesiastic of the Roman catholic church, conspicuous for his moderate views and his extensive literary attainments, was born in Shropshire of catholic parents in the year 1743, and was sent at an early age to the college of St. Omer. Having fulfilled the ordinary course of studies there, he was ordained, and exercised the functions of the priesthood for some years in France. Returning to his native country, he pursued with great industry the career of letters, on which he had already entered in France, by his publication, in 1776, of a "Letter on Materialism and on Hartley's Theory of the Human Mind." Three years after the above date, he published "Immaterialism Delineated, or a View of the First Principles of Things." In the same year he gave to the world his "Letter to Fordyce on his Sermon on the Delusive and Persecuting Spirit of Popery." In the next year appeared his "State and Behaviour of the English Catholics from the Reformation down to 1780." In 1786 he came forward with "An Address to the Protestant Dissenters who had lately Petitioned for a Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts." In the following year he published the "History of Abelard and Heloise, with their genuine Letters," which reached a second edition in 1789. In 1787 Mr. Berington published his "Reflections, with an Exposition of Roman Catholic Principles in reference to God and the Country," followed closely by other controversial tracts of a similar character. In 1790 he again appeared as an author, publishing in quarto a "History of Henry II. and his Two Sons, with a Vindication of the Character of à Becket from Lord Lyttelton's Attacks." In 1793 he gave to the world a more important work, entitled "Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani," giving an account of his conduct in England as agent of the pope of Rome in 1634-36, translated from the Italian original. Panzani's object was the reconcilement of differences between the secular and regular clergy of the Roman catholic body, and to obtain permission for the establishment of a catholic bishop in England; and it appears that he was favourable to some middle course such as would satisfy the existing government. Some remarks on this work, calling in question the authenticity of Panzani's memoirs, were published from the pen of the Rev. C. Plowden. In 1812, in conjunction with his friend, the late Rev. J. Kirk of Lichfield, Mr. Berington brought out his celebrated work on "The Faith of Catholics proved from Scripture, and the Testimony of the Fathers of the First Five Centuries," a treatise which has been frequently reprinted, and has become the standard textbook of the subject among the Roman catholic body. In 1814 appeared the publication by which Mr. Berington's name is most widely known—his "Literary History of the Middle Ages"—a work (according to no less an authority than W. Hazlitt) ad-
