Beyle's novels—and their name is legion—he reproduces himself. Consciously or unconsciously, he is the hero. In the last page of many of his works he inscribes the words, "to the happy few." In one of them we find the mystery explained. The happy few are those who have more than 100 louis a-year, and less than 20,000 francs.
Our chief authority for Beyle's life is his own narrative, and his life by his friend and literary executor, Colomb. De Bussière's account of his works in the Revue des deux mondes, (1843), is worth referring to. The Nouvelle Biographie Generale, by mistake refers this article to Merimée.—J. A., D.
* BEYRICH, Heinrich Ernst, a distinguished living German geologist, born at Berlin on the 31st August, 1815. He is now a professor in the university of Berlin. His writings consist principally of numerous papers on palæontological subjects published in Leonhard and Bronn's Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, &c., in Karsten's Archiv, and other periodicals.—W. S. D.
BEYS, Charles de, a French poet, born in Paris, 1610; died 1659. He passed his life in drinking and writing poetry. He was imprisoned in the Bastile as the presumed author of La Miliade, a satire on Cardinal Richelieu, but was released, his innocence being proven. Author of several comedies.
BEYSCHLAY. Frederick James, a German litterateur, born at Thulle in Suabia, 1700; died in 1738. Author of "Sylloge Variorum Opusculorum," and a few other works on history.
BEZA, Theodore de, was born at Vezelay, of one of the noble families of Burgundy, on the 24th of June, 1519. He was one of thirteen children, whom his father had by two wives. Theodore was the youngest of the first family. When he was still in comparative infancy, a paternal uncle, Nicholas de Beza, a member of the parliament of Paris, paid a visit to the family, and became so fond of his little nephew, that he insisted on taking him to Paris, and rearing him as his own child. The mother, who seems to have been an affectionate and sensible woman, was at first averse to this proposal, but at length consented, and herself accompanied her son to his new home. He had been in infancy a delicate child, and when under his uncle's roof, though treated with the utmost kindness and regard, he caught a disease in his head (scaldhead), which hung about him for a considerable time, and, from the severe remedies applied to it, caused him indescribable agony and distress. He was even on the point one day of throwing himself into the river, to put an end to his tortures, when the timely appearance of his uncle arrested him in the execution of his purpose. At the age of nine he was sent to Orleans, and placed under the charge of Melchior Wolmar, a native of Germany, who had been educated under the most distinguished masters in Paris, and had gone to Orleans to study law. Beza continued with Wolmar from 1528 to 1535, and enjoyed the greatest advantages, as well in a religious as in a literary respect. Wolmar was not only one of the most learned men of his time, but he had also imbibed the doctrines of the Reformation, which he instilled into his pupil, and Beza himself speaks of having from his sixteenth year, that is, while still a pupil of Wolmar, come to the true knowledge of God out of the scriptures. So attached was he to Wolmar, and so ready to follow at that early period of his life the profession of the reformed faith, that when his master was obliged to leave Bourges, whither he had gone, taking Beza along with him, on the invitation of Margaret, queen of Navarre, he would fain have accompanied him, and shared his fortunes in Germany. But this his father peremptorily forbade, and leaving Wolmar with a heavy heart, he returned to Orleans to enter on the study of law, in conformity with the wishes of his father. His uncle Nicholas had died about three years before.
At Orleans, Beza did not prosecute with much zeal the study of law, which he found less adapted to his genius than classical literature. Under Wolmar he had become an accomplished scholar, and being a man also of imagination and taste, his favourite pursuits naturally lay in the direction of philosophy and the belles-lettres. It was during this period of his life that, according to his own testimony, he composed his "Juvenilia," a collection of poems, which were not published till he settled in Paris, and when published brought not a little reproach upon him, on account of the frolicsome and lascivious tendency that appeared in some of them. In his twentieth year, 1539, he became a licentiate of law, and went to reside in Paris. He had meanwhile been provided, through the influence of his friends and even without his own knowledge, with two benefices, which yielded annually seven hundred crowns. This, with what his talents and learning soon enabled him to make as an advocate, put him in possession of ample resources—too ample, indeed, for a young man of good family, engaging appearance, and a lively spirit, when surrounded by the atmosphere of Parisian society. The consequence was that he plunged into the gaieties of the place, and to some extent also partook in its excesses. These he afterwards confessed and deplored, though they never proceeded to the length charged upon him by some catholic writers; he even called upon all who knew him during his residence in Paris to come forward, if they could, and witness against him crimes, of which he had declared himself free. The most blamable part of his conduct appears to have consisted in his private betrothal to a person, Claude Desnoz, much beneath him in station, whom, however, he afterwards publicly married, and with whom he lived happily for forty years. That she was the wife of a tailor, as affirmed by some of his opponents, is a groundless calumny. But while in Paris, Beza was far from being satisfied either with his course of life, or with his professional prospects. The path marked out for him by his father, in concert with his uncle Claudius, abbot of the Cistercian order at Froimart, and an elder brother, a canon of Lyons, was that he should devote himself to the study and practice of the canon law, and rise, under the patronage of one of the cardinals, to some of the more lucrative ecclesiastical preferments. In a letter to his friend Pomponius, respecting this plan, he speaks of himself "as a lost, a ruined man," and expresses his hope that God would yet open the way of escape for him. He still kept up his correspondence with Wolmar, and cherished the desire and expectation of one day rejoining him, and sacrificing all his worldly prospects for conscience. A severe sickness at length brought matters to a crisis. Of this he himself writes, "What was the result? After numberless tortures of body and soul, the Lord again commiserated his perishing servant, and consoled me, so that I no longer doubted of his pardoning grace. In the midst of a thousand tears I implored his forgiveness, renewed my vows to devote myself openly to his true church and honour; in brief, I gave myself up entirely to him. Thus it happened that the image of death awakened in me a slumbering and concealed longing after the true life, and that sickness was the beginning of my recovery, and of real soundness. Accordingly, as soon as I could leave my bed, I burst all bonds which had previously held me captive, gathered together my few goods, and left my native land, parents, and friends, in order to follow Christ, and with my wife went into voluntary exile to Geneva."
It was in October, 1548, that Beza made his resort to Geneva, and his first appearance in the sanctuary there was for the solemnization of his marriage. He then went to consult his old friend Wolmar, whose counsel, however, was undecided, and on his way back to Geneva, at Lausanne, he was invited through Viret, to take the office of teacher of Greek in the academy. In accepting of this office, he gave his colleagues an assurance of his regret at having published the "Juvenilia." He remained ten years at Lausanne, from 1549 to 1559, and proved of great service in the cause of the reformation. Besides teaching Greek in the academy, he gave prelections on some of the epistles of the New Testament. Several of his best poems were also written during this period, among others his "Abraham's Sacrifice," which gained a wide popularity. But he was less happy in the part he took as a controversialist on the subject of Servetus' capital punishment in Geneva. The execution of this man for blasphemy and heresy in 1553, though approved of by Melancthon and the Swiss churches, gave rise to considerable dissatisfaction, and in particular was attacked in a publication addressed to the duke of Wurtemberg by Castellio, Socinus, and S. Curio. Beza replied in a separate treatise, and defended the conduct of Calvin and the authorities of Geneva, on the common though untenable ground, that defections from the faith and from good morals are injurious to the state, and ought in consequence to be punished by the civil magistrate. They no doubt are so, but civil pains and penalties are not the proper remedy for the evil; which introduce greater dangers than those they are applied to correct. On this point Beza proved, in common with the leading minds around him, not above the influences of the time.
Before Beza quitted Lausanne, he was engaged in various negotiations of a public kind, touching the freedom and prosperity both of the Swiss and Waldensian churches. In the course of these he was led to make several tours through the Swiss can-
