BLASPHEMY, defined by Ruskin as the opposite of euphemy, and as wishing ill to anything, culminating in wishing ill to G.o.d, as the height of "ill-manners."

BLATANT BEAST, Spenser's name for the ignorant, slanderous, clamour of the mob.

BLAVATSKY, MME., a theosophist, born in Russia; a great authority on theosophy, the doctrines of which she professed she derived from the fountain-head in Thibet (1813-1891).

BLEEK, FRIEDRICH, eminent German Biblical exegete and critic of the Schleiermacher school, born in Holstein; professor at Bonn; his chief work, "Commentary on the Hebrews," a great work; others are Introductions to the Old and to the New Testaments (1793-1859).

BLEEK, WM., son of preceding, a philologist; accompanied Colenso to Natal; author of "Comparative Grammar of the S. African Languages"

(1827-1875).

BLEFUSCU, an island separated from Lilliput by a strait 800 yards wide, inhabited by pigmies; understood to represent France.

BLENHEIM, a village in Bavaria, near Augsburg; famous for Marlborough's victory in 1704, and giving name to it.

BLENHEIM PARK, near Woodstock, Oxford, the gift, with the Woodstock estate, of the country to the Duke of Marlborough, for his military services in the Spanish Succession war.

BLESSINGTON, COUNTESS OF, an Irish lady celebrated for her beauty and wit; figured much in intellectual circles in London; had her salon at Kensington; was on intimate terms with Byron, and published "Conversations with Byron," and wrote several novels; being extravagant, fell into debt, and had to flee the country (1789-1849).

BLICHER, STEEN STEENSEN, Danish poet of rural life (1782-1848).

BLIGH, WM., a naval officer; served under Captain Cook; commanded the _Bounty_ at Tahiti, when his crew mutinied under his harsh treatment, and set him adrift, with 18 others, in an open boat, in which, after incredible privations, he arrived in England; was afterwards governor of N.S. Wales, but dismissed for his rigorous and arbitrary conduct (1753-1817).

BLIMBER, MRS. CORNELIA, a prim school-matron in "Dombey & Son."

BLIND, KARL, revolutionist and journalist, born at Mannheim; took part in the risings of 1848, and sentenced to prison in consequence of a pamphlet he wrote ent.i.tled "German Hunger and German Princes," but rescued by the mob; found refuge in England, where he interested himself in democratic movements, and cultivated his literary as well as his political proclivities by contributing to magazines, and otherwise; _b_.

1826.

BLIND HARRY, a wandering Scottish minstrel of the 15th century; composed in verse "The Life of that n.o.ble Champion of Scotland, Sir William Wallace."

BLINKERT DUNE, a dune near Haarlem, 197 ft. above the sea-level.

BLOCH, MARCUS ELIESER, a naturalist, born at Ans.p.a.ch, of Jewish descent; his "Ichthyology" is a magnificent national work, produced at the expense of the wealthiest princes of Germany (1723-1799).

BLOEMaeRT, a family of Flemish painters and engravers in 16th and 17th centuries.

BLOIS, capital of the deps. of Loire and Cher, France, on the Loire, 35 m. S. of Orleans; a favourite residence of Francis I. and Charles IX., and the scene of events of interest in the history of France.

BLOMEFLELD, FRANCIS, a clergyman, born at Norfolk; author of "Topographical History of the County of Norfolk" (1705-1751).

BLOMFIELD, bishop of London, born at Bury St. Edmunds; Greek scholar; active in the Church extension of his diocese (1785-1857).

BLONDEL, a troubadour of the 12th century; a favourite of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, it is said, discovered the place of Richard's imprisonment in Austria by singing the first part of a love-song which Richard and he had composed together, and by the voice of Richard in responding to the strain.

BLONDIN, CHARLES, an acrobat and rope-dancer, born at St. Omer, France; celebrated for his feats in crossing Niagara Falls on the tight-rope; _b_. 1824.

BLOOD, THOMAS, COLONEL, an Irish desperado, noted for his daring attempts against the life of the Duke of Ormonde, and for carrying off the regalia in the Tower; unaccountably pardoned by Charles II., and received afterwards into royal favour with a pension of 500 per annum.

He was afterwards charged with conspiracy, and committed to the King's Bench, and released.

b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sIZES, the judicial ma.s.sacres and cruel injustices perpetrated by Judge Jeffreys during Circuit in 1685.

b.l.o.o.d.y BONES, a hobgoblin feared by children.

b.l.o.o.d.y STATUTE, statute of Henry VIII. making it a crime involving the heaviest penalties to question any of the fundamental doctrines of the Romish Church.

BLOOMFLELD, ROBERT, an English poet, born in Suffolk, by trade a shoemaker; author of the "Farmer's Boy," a highly popular production, translated into French and Italian; spent his last days in ill-health struggling with poverty, which brought on dejection of mind (1766-1823).

BLOUNT, CHARLES, a deist, born in London; a.s.sailant of revealed religion; was involved in all the controversies of the time; died by his own hand (1654-1693).

BLOWPIPE, a contrivance by which a current of air is driven through a flame, and the flame directed upon some fusible substance to fuse or vitrify it.

BLuCHER, Prussian field-marshal, familiarly named "Marshal Forwards," born at Rostock; served first in the Swedish army, then in the Prussian; distinguished as a leader of cavalry, and met with varying fortune; at the age of 70 commanded the centre of the Allied Army in 1813; distinguished himself at Lutzen and Leipzig; pursued the French across the Rhine; pressed forward to Paris at the time of Napoleon's abdication; defeated by Napoleon at Ligny, 16th June 1815; arrived on the field of Waterloo just as the French were preparing to make their last charge, and contributed to decide the fate of the day (1742-1819).

BLUE MOUNTAINS, a range of thickly wooded mountains traversing Jamaica from E. to W., from 5000 to 7000 ft. in height; also a chain of mountains in New South Wales of two parallel ranges, with a deep chasm between, and full of gloomy ravines and beetling precipices, the highest 4100 ft.

BLUE NOSE, a nickname given to an inhabitant of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.