ages. Augustus William Schlegel says of him, "A deep, strong feeling, often combined with an ardent enthusiasm; an imagination from which strong and wonderful images spring forth in boundless profusion; an inventive fancy, always striking out original comparisons, in surprising forms; a penetrating judgment, which, when not blinded by partiality or early prejudices, catches the human character with a quick and piercing glance; great moral energy and independence; a bold security of genius, always choosing its own path, and not fearing even the most untrodden;—all these qualities are so strongly displayed in the works of Balde, that we are constrained to declare him an uncommon and richly-gifted poet."-His poems in the German language are insignificant. A collection of his poetical writings, consisting of lyric, elegiac, didactic, satirical and other poems, appeared, in 1660, at Cologne, in 4 vols., 12mo.; and at Munich, in 1729, 8 vols.; a selection by I. C. Orell, Zurich, 1805, second edition, 1818.

BALDWIN III, king of Jerusalem, from 1143 to 1162; a model of that chivalry which grew up in the period of the crusades, from the sentiments of honor, justice, devotion and love. The crusaders had established counts of Tripoli and Edessa, and princes of Antioch. The feudal dominions of the Christians extended as far as Tarsus and Cilicia; but the vassals of B. were always in rebellion against him, or engaged in conflicts with each other. Against them and the new hosts of crusaders, against the knights of St. Mary, the Templars and the Hospitallers, the Saracen heroes, Saladin, Noureddin, Zenghi and Seifeddin, fought with equal fanaticism and equal dissensions among themselves, but with better fortune. In the army of B. were sometimes seen Saracens, valiantly fighting under the banner of the cross. His unhappy reign was the last struggle to establish the Christian chivalry, the tournaments and the knightly orders in the East. With it fell the feudal constitution in that quarter, both civil and ecclesiastical.

B. died not long before the total ruin of his kingdom; and when his great adversary, Noureddin, was advised to attack the dominions of the deceased during his funeral, he answered, "Let us respect their affliction; it is just; for they have lost a king such as is rarely to be found." BALE, BASIL, or BASLE. (See Basle.) BALE, COUNCIL OF. (See Basle, Council of.)

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BALEARES; the name of the two islands in the Mediterranean, situated near the coast of Valencia, in Spain, Majorca (in Spanish, Mallorca) and Minorca (q. v.), which, together with the Pithyusian islands, Ivica and Formentera, formed the Spanish kingdom of Majorca, containing 1758 square miles, and 275,000 inhabitants. The Grecian name B. was given them because the inhabitants were famous for their skill in slinging. The Balearic slingers distinguished themselves in the army of Hannibal. In later times, the Romans took possession of both the islands; afterwards, the Vandals, under Genseric, and, in the 8th century, the Moors, from whom they were taken by James I, king of Arragon, 1220-1234. They then constituted a kingdom, which, in 1375, was united to Spain. The English conquered Minorca in 1708, lost it again in 1782, and relinquished it to Spain by the treaty of 1783.—Under the Romans, the B. belonged to the conventus juridicus in Carthagine nova.

BALEN, Hendrick van, and Jacob van; father and son; historical painters; the former born in 1560, the latter in 1611, both at Antwerp. The former died in 1632. Pictures by each are still extant, and considered valuable.

BALES, Peter, famous for his skill in penmanship, lived in the 16th century. Holingshed, in his chronicle, mentions the wonderful skill of B. in what may be termed micrography; and Evelyn more particularly states, that he wrote the Lord's prayer, creed, decalogue, two short Latin prayers, his own name, motto, day of the month, year of our Lord and of the reign of queen Elizabeth, to whom he presented it at Hampton court, all within the circle of a silver penny, enchased in a ring and border of gold, and covered with a crystal, so accurately done as to be plainly legible, to the great admiration of her majesty, the whole privy-council, and several ambassadors then at court. He was very dexterous in imitating the hand-writing of others, on which account he was employed by sir Francis Walsingham, the queen's secretary of state; but, by involving himself in the conspiracy of the earl of Essex, he suffered imprisonment. He died about 1610. From a book which he published in 1590, entitled the "Writing Schoolmaster, in three Parts; the first teaching Swift Writing, the second True Writing, the third Fair Writing," it appears that he was acquainted with stenography. His talents were celebrated

by learned men in verse. We shall have a more just idea of his merits, if we consider the low state of penmanship at that time. All the manuscripts of that period extant are either miserably written, or have the appearance of drawings rather than writings.

BALESSAN; the Eastern name for that species of the amyris which produces the celebrated balsam of Mecca, the ancient balm of Gilead. This plant grows to the height of 14 feet, on a stony, barren soil. The balsam is a resinous matter, exuding, like ordinary resin, from incisions in the bark, in July, August and September. The balsam is used for many medicinal purposes, and the ladies in the East employ it as a means of beautifying the skin. Lady Montague tried it, and relates that she suffered for three days from its application, but that her complexion was greatly improved. The balsam of Gilead was renowned among the early Hebrews.

BALESTRA, Antonio; a historical painter of much reputation; born at Verona, in 1666; died, according to some, in 1720; according to others, in 1740.

BALIOL, BALLIOL, or BAILLIOL, John; king of Scotland. On the death of queen Margaret, being at the head of the English interest in Scotland, he claimed the vacant throne by virtue of his descent from David, earl of Huntingdon, brother to William the Lion, king of Scotland. Robert Bruce opposed Baliol; but, having submitted to the arbitration of Edward I, the decision was in favor of Baliol, who did homage to him for the kingdom, Nov. 12, 1292. Baliol, however, did not long enjoy the crown, for, having remonstrated against the power which Edward assumed over Scotland, he was summoned to his tribunal as a vassal. Irritated at this, Baliol concluded a treaty with France, on which a war with England immediately commenced; and, after the battle of Dunbar, he surrendered his crown into the hands of the English monarch, who sent him and his son to London, to be imprisoned in the Tower. The pope interceded for them, and they were liberated, and committed to his legate, in 1297. Baliol retired to his estate in France, where he died in 1314.

BALISTE, OF BALLISTE; a kind of machines for besieging, or attacking the besiegers, in use among the ancients, by which heavy stones, also arrows and other weapons, were thrown; and even burning substances and dead bodies, by the besiegers. Many of the ancient wri

ters confound the balista with the calapulta, but Polybius makes a difference, using the latter word only for those machines which threw stones. The mechanism of these machines is not quite clear. There is a third name for a kind of these machines-onager. The weight of the stones thrown was from 10 to 300 pounds. Sometimes a large quantity of stones was thrown at once. A clear idea of these instruments cannot be formed without the study of treatises on the arms and warfare of the ancients.

BALIZE; a sea-port of Mexico, in Yucatan, at the mouth of the river Balize. Vessels of burden cannot come near the town, on account of a bar in the river. It is the only settlement of consequence, belonging to the British, on the coast, and consists of about 200 houses, built of wood. The chief trade is in logwood and mahogany.

BALK; the ancient Bactria. (See Aƒghanistan.)

BALKAN (anciently called Hamus); a lofty and rugged chain of mountains, extending from cape Emineh Burum, on the Black sea, in European Turkey, to cape San Stefano, in the Adriatic sea, from 23° to 27° E. lon. Near Sulu Derbent (Porta Trajani), this mountain, called, by the Turks, Emineh Slag, separates from Rhodope, and divides the valley of the Danube, which constitutes Bulgaria, (inhabited mostly by wandering tribes), from Romania, or Rumelia. A branch extends from north to south (mount Athos); another runs through ancient Greece, and comprehends the mountains Olympus, Eta, Pindus, Parnassus, Helicon. The highest peak, Orbelus, rises 9000 feet above the surface of the sea. After the overthrow of the empire in Constantinople, only the Greeks of the plains and the sea-coast submitted to the Mussulmans. The warriors, and those who had no landed property, fled into the mountains, into the armatolics, and have, in general, maintained a continual contest with the pachas of the plain: some have paid a small tribute to the Turkish pacha, and some have become Mohammedans. The districts where the Catholic is the prevailing church, contain the wildest inhabitants, and have never been subjected to the emperors of Constantinople for any length of time.

BALL. Ball-playing was practised by the ancients, and old and young amused themselves with it, particularly in the therma. The Greeks and Romans had four kinds of balls. One was of leather,

filled with air, and consequently similar to our foot-ball; the second, a leathern ball, which was thrown on the earth, and after which many ran at once; the third, a small ball, similar to our shuttlecock, which three persons, placed in a triangle, struck towards each other; the fourth was thickly stuffed with feathers, and used particularly in the country. In a Roman villa, a sphæristerium (a place appropriated for playing ball) was always to be found. In the middle ages, there were houses appropriated to ball-playing. In these, certain persons were employed to pick up the balls of the players, who, in France, were called nanquets, and, in later times, marqueurs. In Italy, there are still public places, where people play with large balls, which they strike with a kind of wooden cylinder, fastened round their wrists, to an immense height. The spectators often pay for admission to the spectacle, and, in some cities, the players form a company. From what we have seen in different countries, we think the national German ball-play the most interesting, and the one which affords the best exercise.

BALLAD; a short epic song, (from the Italian ballata, an old kind of song), of an entirely lyric nature. Ballata is derived from ballare, to dance, probably from the German wallen (pronounced vallen), which signifies a waving motion. Though the name is Italian, the species of poetry which we now understand under the word ballad, belonging to England and the other northern nations of Europe, is of Teutonic origin, at least Percy and Bouterweck agree in this, and Frederic Schlegel, in his History of Ancient and Modern Literature (Vienna, 1815), seems to be of the same opinion. The word ballata passed from the Italians to the Provençales, from whom the Normans took it, and carried it to England, where it was applied to short songs, particularly to the most popular ones, which were short tales in verse, describing the deeds of heroes, the adventures of lovers, &c. If we wish to trace the English and Scottish ballad to its origin, we must have recourse to those songs which existed among the inhabitants of the island before the Norman conquest, and were of a kind common to all the Teutonic nations. It is related of king Alfred, that he sung in the camp of the Danes. All the Scandinavian nations delighted in songs celebrating the deeds of heroes, or describing the passions and adventures of lovers; and the three great divisions or cycles of the Teu

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tonic poetry of the middle ages,—the stories of the Nibelungen, those of Charlemagne (particularly such as relate to his war against the Arabians and the battle of Roncesvalles), and the tales of king Arthur's round table,-consist of what, at a later period, were called ballads. The true home of the English ballad is the northern part of England (the North Country) and the southern part of Scotland, where the influence of the Normans was less than in the south of England. Those Normans who settled in these parts despised the native poetry, which they did not understand; and thus it was left entirely to the people, and retained, for that reason, its simple and popular character, even after it grew into esteem among the descendants of the Norman conquerors. The feudal wars of the Norman knights, and their highly chivalric spirit, which flourished in England as long, and in as much purity, as in the southern countries of Europe, afforded new subjects to the ballad, and contributed to modify its character. The minstrels were accustomed to sing the deeds of their ancestors, with all the additions which a lively imagination dictated. They soon commemorated, in the same way, the achievements of their contemporaries, and now the ballad, properly so called, originated. The former bards became minstrels, who, in connexion with the jongleurs, or jougleurs (resembling the modern jugglers, who have derived their name from them), waited upon the barons, like the French menetriers, devoting themselves to their amusement, and receiving, in return, pecuniary rewards and hospitable entertainment. (Minstrel and menetrier are both derived from the Latin ministerialis.) As the popular poetry of the first centuries after the Norman conquest did not acquire a literary reputation, and probably was never committed to writing, it is not to be wondered at, that the oldest poems of a mixed Norman and Anglo-Saxon character, which are preserved in MSS., are either imitations of French poetry, or religious songs, such as were found among other nations of Europe in the middle ages. A little poem on spring is almost the only one of genuine Saxon origin, which has, as yet, been printed from MS. Warton has published it in the additions and emendations which belong to vol. 1 of his History of English Poetry. It begins, Sumer is cumen. The earliest of the English ballads which have been preserved cannot be considered antecedent to the 14th century; and we

cannot speak with certainty of the origin of many which appeared before the 15th. We have said that the ballad above described is properly of Teutonic origin; we ought to mention, however, that the Spaniards, and they only, among the southern nations of Europe, have songs of equal age and merit with the English ballads. The principal difference between them is, that the Spanish romance is in trochaic, the English ballad in iambic, metre. The different character of the nations has also produced some diversity in the tone of sentiment and feeling. At the time when this kind of poetry flourished in the two nations, they had very little intercourse with each other, and the similarity of the forms which it assumed can be explained only by an accidental similarity of causes. (For further information on the history of the English ballad, we must refer the reader to Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry; Warton's History of English Poetry; Dr. Burney's History of Music, and vol. vii. of Bouterweck's History of Poetry and Eloquence since the End of the 13th Century.-For information respecting the Spanish ballad, or romance, as it is called by the Spaniards, see the article Romance.) The French poetry of this kind never reached any high degree of perfection, because their fabliaux, legends, &c., soon degenerated into interminable metrical and prose romances of chivalry. In Italy, the ballad never flourished: the poetry of that country has always retained a certain antique spirit, and the Italians never partook, to any great extent, in the crusades, being fully occupied at home in the wars of the free cities. The Portuguese never cultivated the ballad much. Almost all their poetry of this kind is to be traced to a Spanish origin. The German ballad never became so popular as the English, nor was so much cultivated as the Spanish. The Russians have lyricoepic poems, of which some, in old Russian, are excellent. Of the ballads of modern times, the German are the best. Many of these are the productions of the first writers of the country-Göthe, Schiller, Bürger, &c. The best observations within our knowledge, on the character of the ballad, and what it requires, is to be found in Frederic von Schlegel's Kritische Schriften (on Bürger).

BALLAST (from the Danish baglast) is a load of sand or stones, deposited in ships, which have not freight enough to sink them to their proper depth in the water, so as to resist the wind and waves.

In

storms, if the vessel leaks, part of the ballast must often be thrown out, to make the vessel lighter. By the English navigation act, and by the laws of other commercial nations, formed by way of retaliation, vessels are often obliged to take ballast, either on their departure or return, instead of transporting, even at little profit, heavy and cheap goods of the country, to foreign countries.

BALLET (from bal; hence the French baller, and the Italian ballare, to dance); in its widest sense, the representation of a series of passionate actions and feelings, by means of gestures and dancing. According to this signification, we comprehend, under ballets, even representations of mental emotions, not connected with a regular train of action. In a more confined sense, we call ballets musical pieces, the object of which is to represent, by mimic movements and dances, actions, characters, sentiments, passions and feelings, in which several dancers perform together. According to the analogy of lyrical poetry, those which rather represent feelings may be called lyrical ballets; those which imitate actions, dramatic ballets. The lyrical and dramatic ballets, together, constitute the higher art of dancing, in opposition to the lower, the aim of which is only social pleasure. The dramatic ballets are divided into historical, the subject of which is a real event; the mythological, in which the subject is some fabulous action; and the poetical, which are founded on poetical fiction, to which belong, also, the allegorical, necessarily the most imperfect. A ballet is usually divided into several acts, each of which has several entrées. entrée, in a ballet, consists of one or several quadrilles of dancers, who, by their steps, gestures and attitudes, represent a certain part of the action. In criticising a ballet, we must consider, first, the choice of the subject, which must have unity of action or of passion, and must be capable of being represented in an intelligible manner by means of mimic movements and dancing; secondly, the plan and execution of the single parts, which must have a due proportion to each other; and, finally, the music and decorations, which must supply whatever dancing cannot bring before the eye. The ballet is an invention of modern times (the ingenious artist Baltazarini, director of music to the princess Catharine de' Medici, probably gave its form to the regular ballet), though pantomimic dances were not unknown to the ancients. (See Mimic and Panto

An

mime.) The ballet owes much to the French, and particularly to Noverre. (q. v.) The dances, which are frequently introduced into operas, seldom deserve the name ballet, as they usually do not represent any action, but are designed only to give the dancers an opportunity of showing their skill.

BALLHORN, John; printer at Lübeck, who, between 1531 and 1599, published a spelling-book, on the last page of which he altered the usual picture of a cock with spurs, into that of a cock without spurs, having a couple of eggs at his side. As he printed in the title-page, on account of this trivial alteration, "Improved by John Ballhorn," the word Ballhornize is proverbially used, in Germany, to signify stupid and useless alterations, or the making a thing worse instead of better. BALLISTE. (See Balista.) BALLOON. (See Aeronautics.) BALLSTON-SPA; a village of New York, 7 miles S. W. of Saratoga springs, 26 N. of Albany. This place is noted for its mineral waters, which are similar, though inferior, to those of Saratoga springs. It is situated in a deep vale, on a branch of the Kayaderosseras creek, and contains about 100 houses, a court-house, an Episcopal church, a Baptist meeting-house, and a number of large boarding-houses and inns, for the accommodation of visitors.

BALM OF GILEAD is the dried juice of a low tree or shrub (amyris gileadensis), which grows in several parts of Abyssinia and Syria. This tree has spreading, crooked branches; small, bright-green leaves, growing in threes; and small, white flowers on separate footstalks. The petals are four in number, and the fruit is a small, egg-shaped berry, containing a smooth nut.-By the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt, this balsam, as appears from the Scriptures, was in great esteem from the highest periods of antiquity. We are informed by Josephus, the Jewish historian, that the balsam of Gilead was one of the trees which was given by the queen of Sheba to king Solomon. The Ishmaelitish merchants, who were the purchasers of Joseph, are said to have been travelling from Gilead, on the eastern side of Canaan, to Egypt, and to have had their camels laden with "spicery, balm and myrrh." It was then, and is still, considered one of the most valuable medicines that the inhabitants of those countries possess. The virtues, however, which have been ascribed to it exceed all rational bounds of credibility. The mode

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in which it is obtained is described by Mr. Bruce. The bark of the trees is cut with an axe, at a time when its juices are in their strongest circulation. These, as they ooze through the wound, are received into small earthen bottles; and every day's produce is gathered, and poured into a larger bottle, which is closely corked. When the juice first issues from the wound, it is of a lightyellow color, and a somewhat turbid appearance; but, as it settles, it becomes clear, has the color of honey, and appears more fixed and heavy than at first. Its smell, when fresh, is exquisitely fragrant, strongly pungent, not much unlike that of volatile salts; but if the bottle be left uncorked, it soon loses this quality. Its taste is bitter, acrid, aromatic and astringent. The quantity of balsam yielded by one tree never exceeds 60 drops in a day. Hence its scarcity is such, that the genuine balsam is seldom exported as an article of commerce. Even at Constantinople, the centre of trade of those countries, it cannot, without great difficulty, be procured. In Turkey, it is in high esteem as a medicine, an odoriferous unguent and a cosmetic. But its stimulating properties upon the skin are such, that the face of a person unaccustomed to use it becomes red and swollen after its application, and continues so for some days. The Turks also take it in small quantities, in water, to fortify the stomach, and excite the animal faculties.

BALOOCHISTAN. (See Beloochistan.)

BALSAM. The term balsam was formerly applied to any strong-scented, natural, vegetable resin, of about the fluidity of treacle, inflammable, not miscible with water without addition, and supposed to be possessed of many medical virtues. All the turpentines, the Peruvian balsam, copaiba, &c., are examples of natural balsams. Many medicines, also, compounded of various resins or oils, have obtained the name of balsams; as Locatelli balsam, &c. Lately, the term has been restricted to those resins which contain benzoic acid. The most important balsams are those of Tolu and Peru-storax and benzoin, as they are named: the latter is concrete, the former fluid, though becoming solid with age. They are odorous and pungent, and useful only as articles of the materia medica. The benzoic acid is extracted from them either by applying a gentle heat, when it is volatilized, or by maceration in water, when it is dissolved.

BALTIC SEA, or the EAST SEA; a large