phur, tallow, &c. which not only makes it smooth and slippery, so as to divide the fluid more readily, but also poisons and destroys those worms which eat through the planks in the course of a voyage. Breaming may be performed either when the ship lies a-ground after the tide has ebbed from her, or by docking, or by careening. BREAST', v. & n. Goth. briost, Swed. BREAST HIGH, brost, Tent, bruste, Bel. BREAST PLATE, borst, Ang.-Sax. breost, BREAST LAP, Per. băr. The thorax, BREAST BONE, the heart. To breast is BREAST KNOT, to oppose the breast to BREAST WORK. anything; to face, to front. Another term for bosom, especially that of the female yielding nourishment to her offspring. It is metaphorically applied to the mind; to the heart and conscience; to the seat of the passions; sometimes to the lungs, in the case of a singer.

They pluck the fatherless from the breast.

Therwith the fire of jalousie, up sterte
Within his brest, and hent him by the herte
So woodly, that he like was (to behold)
The box-tree, or the ashen dead and cold.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

For though thin husband armed be in maille,
The arwes of thy crabbed eloquence
Shall perce his brest, and eke his aventaille:
In jalousie, I rede eke, thou him binde,
And thou shalt make him crouch as doth a quaile.
Id.

Hire gilded heres with a goldin threde
Ibounden were, untressid as she laie:
And nakid from the brest unto the hede

Men might her see. Id. Assemblie of Foules.
By which she well perceiving what was done,
Gan teare her hayre, and all her garments rent,
And beat her breast, and piteously herself torment.

Spenser. The river itself gave way unto her, so that she was straight breast-high. Sidney. What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? Thrice is he armed, that hath his quarrel just.

Shakspeare.

Or break the heart to which thou'rt prest! Byron. BREASTS, MAMME, in anatomy.. See ANATOMY, Index.

BREAST, SMITING THE, is an expression of penitence. In the Romish church, the priest beats his breast in rehearsing the general confession at the beginning of the mass.

BREAST-HOOKS, in ship building, are thick pieces of timber incurvated into the form of knees. They are placed at different heights directly across the stem, so as to unite it with the bows on each side. The breast-hooks are strongly connected to the stem and hawse-piecesby tree-nails, and by bolts driven from without through the planks and hawse-pieces, and the whole thickness of the breast-hooks, upon whose inside those bolts are forelocked or clinched upon rings. They are usually about one third thicker, and twice as long, as the knees of the decks they support.

BREAST-PAIN, in the menage, called by the Italians grandezza di petto, is a distemper in horses proceeding from superfluity of blood and other gross humors, which, being dissolved by some extreme and disorderly heat, resort downward to the breast, and pain them extremely. The signs of the breast-pain are, a stiff, staggering, and weak going with his fore legs, besides, that he can hardly, if at all, bow his head to the ground.

BREAST-PLATE, in Jewish antiquity, a part of the sacerdotal vestments anciently worn by the high priest. It was a folded piece of the same rich embroidered stuff of which the ephod was made, set with twelve precious stones, on each of which was engraven the name of one of the tribes. They were set in four rows, three in each row; and were divided from each other by the little golden squares or partitions in which they were set. This breast-plate was fastened at the four corners; those on the top to each shoulder by a golden hook or ring at the end of a wreathed chain; and those below, to the girdle of the ephod, by two strings or ribbons, which had, likewise, two rings and hooks, This ornament was never to be severed from the priestly garment; and it was called the memorial, to put

the high-priest in mind how dear those tribes ought to be to him, whose names he wore on his breast. It is also called the breast-plate of judgment, because it had the divine oracle of Urim and Thummim annexed to it. See URIM and THUMMIM.

BREAST-PLATE, in the menage, the strap of leather that runs from one side of the saddle to the other, over the horse's breast, in order to keep the saddle tight, and hinder it from sliding backwards.

BREAST-PLATES, for armour, are said to have been, originally, made of hides, or hemp twisted into small cords, but afterwards of brass, iron, or other metals; which were sometimes so exquisitely hardened, as to be proof against the greatest force. See ARMOUR.

BREAST-WORK OF A SHIP, a sort of ballustrade or fence, composed of rails or mouldings, and often decorated with sculpture; it terminates the quarter-deck and poop at the fore-ends, and

encloses the fore-castle both before and behind.
BREATHE, v.
BREATH, n.
BREATHER,

A0; Goth. and Teut. athem; Ang.-Sax. orath, bræth; æthian, bræthian; air of life; air drawn in (and thrown out of the BREATH LESS, lungs; to draw breath; BREATH LESSNESS, to rest. Goth. brydda; BREATHINGTIME. Swed. brada; Welch

BREATHING,

BREATH'FUL,

brathu; to puncture; to pierce; to open a vein; to give vent. To breathe, then, is to inspire or inhale; to expire or exhale; to take breath; to give breath to send forth; to emit; to eject: to utter privately: an odor; a perfume; a vow; a prayer; relaxation.

and eke, hire breth I trowe Surmounteth all odours that er I founde

In swetenesse.

Chaucer's Court of Love.

She colde was; and withouten sentement, For ought he wote, for brethe yet felt he none, And this was him a preignant argument That she was forth out of this world agone. Id. Troilus and Creseide.

The breath came slowly thence, unwilling leaving So sweet a lodge; but when she once intended To feast the aire with words, the heart deceiving, More fast it thronged so to be expended; And at each word a hundred loves attended, Playing i' th' breath, more sweete than is that firing, Where that Arabian onely bird, expiring

Lives by her death, by losse of breath more fresh respiring.

Spenser.

Id. ib.

Let him breathe, between the heavens and earth, A private man in Athens. Id. Antony and Cleopatra, She shows a body rather than a life, A statue rather than a breather. Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life, And breathing to this breathless excellence The incense of a vow, a holy vow. Id. King John. Give me some breath, some little pause, dear lord, Before I positively speak. Id. Richard III.

As bodily respiration without intermission or impediment doth concur with all our actions, so may that breathing of soul which preserveth our spiritual life, and ventilateth that holy frame within us, well conspire with all other occupations.

Barrow.

Rest, that gives all men life, gave him his death, And too much breathing put him out of breath.

His altar breathes
Ambrosial odours, and ambrosial flowers.

Milton.

Id. Paradise Lost.

Me thinks I heare the soldiers and busie officers

when they were rolling that other weighty stone (for such we probably conceive) to the mouth of the vault with much toyle and sweat, and breathlesnesse, how they bragged of the surenesse of the place, and unremovcablenesse of that load.

Hall. On the Resurrection. I would be young, be handsome, be beloved, Could I but breathe myself into Adrastus. Dryden. You menace me, and court me, in a breath; Your Cupid looks as dreadfully as death. Spaniard, take breath, some respite I'll afford;

My cause is more advantage than your sword.

Id.

No man has more contempt than I of breath, But whence hast thou the power to give me death?

The ready cure to cool the raging pain, Is underneath the foot to breathe a vein.

Id.

Id.

Id. Virgil. While to high heaven his pious breathings turned, Weeping he hoped, and sacrificing mourned. Prior. The artful youth proceed to form the quire; They breathe the flute, or strike the vocal wire. Id. Where he vital breathes there must be joy.

Thomson.

Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot; To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind; To breathe the' enlivening spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast.

Here, by the stream, if I the night outwear, Thus spent already, how shall nature bear The dews descending, and nocturnal air; Or chilly vapours, breathing from the flood When morning rises.

Id.

Pope's Odyssey. Formed to make pleaders laugh, his nonserse thunders,

And on low juries breathes contagious blunders.

Savage's Miscellanies. Nature is dumb on this important point, Or Hope precarious in low whisper breathes. Young's Christian's Triumph. He ought, says this great political doctor (Machiavel), to consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans.

The fourth day came, but not a breath of air, And ocean slumbered like an unweaned child.

Burke.

Byron.

But still her lips refused to send- Farewell!' For in that word-that fatal word-howe'er We promise-hope-believe-there breathes despair. Id. Corsair.

BREBEUF (William de), a French poet, Dorn at Thorigny, in 1618. He was chiefly distinguished by a translation of Lucan, which, though abounding in bombast and false brilliances, was long admired; and procured great promises of advancement to the author, from cardinal Mazarine, who died, however, without fulfilling them. But the best of his works is the First Book of Lucan Travestied, which is an ingenious satire upon the great, and upon the meanness and servility of those who submit to flatter them. He is said to have had a fever that lasted above twenty years. He died in 1661, aged forty-three.

BRECCIA, in mineralogy, an Italian term, used to denote such compound stones as are composed of agglutinated fragments of consider

able size.

BRECHIN, a town and royal burgh in the county of Forfar, Scotland, situated on the declivity of a hill, which rises from the north bank of the Esk, about eighty-four miles north of Edinburgh. It unites with Aberdeen, Montrose, Aberbrothick, and Inverbervie, in sending one member to the parliament of Great Britain. It has a small manufacture of linen and sail-cloth, a large brewery, and about 6000 inhabitants. It is principally noted in history in connexion with a convent of Culdees. A bishop's see was founded here about the middle of the twelfth century, and endowed by David I. Some remains of the cathedral still appear, and the west end is occupied as a parish church. At a small distance stands one of those singular round towers whose use has so long baffled the conjectures of antiquaries. The towers appear to have been peculiar to North Britain and Ireland: in the latter they are common: in the former but two, we believe, now exist. That at Brechin stood originally detached from other buildings. It is at present joined near the bottom by a low additional aisle to the church, which takes in about a sixth of its circumference. From this aisle there is an entrance into it of modern date, approachable by a few steps, for the use of the ringers; two handsome bells were formerly placed in it, which were approached by means of six ladders placed on wooden semicircular floors; but the bells have lately given place to an excellent town clock. The height from the ground to the roof is eighty feet; the inner diameter, within a few feet of the bottom, is eight feet; the thickness of the wall at that part, seven feet two inches; so that the whole diameter is fifteen feet two inches; the circumference very near forty-eight feet; the inner diameter at top is eight feet seven inches; the thickness of the walls four feet six inches; the circumference thirty-eight feet eight inches; which proportion gives the building an elegant appearance; the top is roofed with an octagonal spire twenty-three feet high, which makes the whole 103. The castle of Brechin was built on an eminence, a little south of this town; it underwent a long siege in 1303; and was gallantly defended against the English under Edward III.; and, notwithstanding all the efforts of that potent prince, the brave governor, Sir Thomas Maule, ancestor of the present Maule family, of Panmure, held out this small fortress for twenty days,

till he was slain by a stone from an engine on the 20th of August, when the place was instantly surrendered. Brechin is also remarkable for a battle fought near it, in the rebellion of 1452, on account of the murder of the earl of Douglas. The victory fell to the royalists under the earl of Huntly.

BRECKNOCK, the county town and capital of the county of Brecknock (Aber-Hondey, Welch,) seated at the confluence of the rivers Hondey and Uske, over which there are four bridges. This place consists of three principal irregular streets, in the most spacious of which are the town-hall and the market-place. The collegiate church, founded on the ruins of a Dominican priory, is now falling into decay. Here are three parish churches, four places of worship for dissenters, and some manufactories of cloth, hats, and cotton-stockings. The castle is said to have been built by Bernard de Newmarsh, a favorite of William Rufus, who also encircled the town with walls. It was nearly destroyed in Oliver Cromwell's time. The arsenal, a handsome brick building, stands in that part of the town called the Watton, on the road side, being ninety-nine feet long, thirty-five broad, and two stories high. The tower contains an armoury for 15,000 stands of arms, and 1500 swords, arranged in the manner of the arms at the tower of London. The priory walk is very pleasant. To the east of the town is a lake well stored with fish, called Brecknock Mere. It sends one member to parliament, and is governed by two bailiffs, fifteen aldermen, two chamberlains, two constables, a town-clerk, and other officers. Market days, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. It is 171 miles W. N. W. from London. are several traces of Roman camps in the neighbourhood.

There

BRECKNOCK, a county of South Wales, is bounded by Radnor on the north, Cardigan and Carmarthen on the west, Hereford and Monmouth on the east, and by Monmouth and Glamorgan on the south. It is about thirty-five miles long, thirty broad, and about 100 in circumference, containing nearly 512,000 acres of land, of which 232,000 acres are in a state of cultivation, and 185,600 acres are waste, unfit for culture. It contains six hundreds, viz. Builth, Crickhowel, Devynnock, Merthyr, Penkelly, and Talgarth; has four market-towns, Brecon, Builth, Crickhowel, and Hay; and sixty-two parishes. This is one of the most mountainous counties of Wales, containing the Vann, or BrecknockBeacon, reckoned the loftiest mountain in SouthWales. The air in the valleys is always temperate; the soil on the hills stony; but the streams descending thence into the vales, render them fruitful. Its principal rivers are the Wye, which separates it from Radnor, and the Uske, which rises from the Black Mountain on the border of Carmarthenshire, and, flowing through a beautiful valley to the south-east angle, passes the town of Brecon. Its chief productions are copper, lead, iron, corn, cattle, fish, and otter's fur, and manufactories of cloth and stockings The whole county, indeed, is replete with every article of subsistence, with which the different markets and fairs are well supplied. A canal.

from Brecon to Llanelly, eighteen miles long, and nine feet wide, was opened in 1800, and is navigable for barges of twenty-five tons burden. Coal and lime stone are found in large quantities. At Llanelly, and near the borders of Glamorgan, there have been lately established several extensive iron works. The exports are a species of woollen cloth (which is carried to be milled and dyed in England), wool, worsted, stockings, timber, iron, cattle, sheep, pigs, butter and cheese. It returns two members to parliament; one for the county, and one for Brecknock, the county-town.

BREDA, a strong fortified town of the Netherlands, the capital of a lordship of that name in Dutch Brabant. It is of a triangular shape, having a gate at each angle. It lies on the river Merck, near the influx of the Aa, and thus has a good communication with the sea. Its position, in the midst of a marsh, contributes so much to its defence, that the adjoining country can be laid under water by means of sluices which communicate with the river. It has also a castle, constructed by William, prince of Orange, afterwards king of England; the ramparts are lined with trees. The great church is remarkable for its tower, which was burnt down in 1696, but since rebuilt; the height of the spire is 362 feet. The interior contains several monuments of the ancient lords of Breda. The town-house is a noble building. This was formerly a place of considerable commerce, and had extensive cloth manufactories; but there now only remain a few manufactures of carpets, stockings, and hats. There are also several breweries.

Breda suffered severely in the wars of the sixteenth century, between Spain and the Dutch. Before the breaking out of these commotions, the lordship belonged to the family of NassauOrange; but in 1567 they were seized by the duke of Alva. The garrison delivered up the town to the states-general in 1577, but it was wrested from them in 1581. Here, in May 1590, prince Maurice of Nassau began that series of operations which ended in the liberation of Holland. He sent into Breda a party of chosen men, concealed in a boat loaded with turf, who admitted the other besiegers, and the town was given up. It was retaken by the Spaniards, under Spinola in 1625, after a close blockade, and a siege of six months. They kept possession of it till 1637, when it was finally retaken by the Dutch. Our Charles II. resided here when invited to the throne of his father, in 1660, and issued a celebrated declaration, to which he adhered as it accorded with his convenience. In 1667 was held at Breda a celebrated congress, which ended in treaties of peace between Charles II. of England on the one side, and Louis XIV. of France, Frederick III. of Denmark, and the states-general on the other. A second congress was summoned here in 1747, but never took place, the negociations having been removed to Aix-la-Chapelle. In February 1793 the French became masters of the town and fortress, after five days blockade and a slight bombardment, but gave it up on the 4th April of the same year. In September 1794 they made preparations for a second attack, but the place held out till the entire conquest of Holland. In December 1813,

when the prince of Orange had been recalled to Holland, general Bechendorff's corps, of the Russian army, marched in the direction of Breda, and, on the tenth, the French garrison sallied out to make an attack on that force; upon which the loyal burgesses rose en masse, shut the gates, and prevented them again entering the place. It is twenty-two miles S. S. E. of Rotterdam, and forty-eight south of Amsterdam.

BREDA (Alexander Van), an eminent painter of Antwerp, much esteemed for his landscapes, fairs, views of particular scenes in Italy, and varieties of animals and figures.

BREDA (John Van), the son of Alexander, was born at Antwerp in 1683. Having the advantage of the example and directions of his father, he continued with him till he was eighteen years of age. Among the various capital paintings, then in the possession of John De Wit, at Antwerp, Breda fixed upon those of Velvet Brueghel, which he copied with extraordinary success; and was employed for nine years in copying the pictures of several other great masters. After this he went to London with Rysbrach, the sculptor, where he rose into great esteem. After residing some years in England, he returned to Antwerp, loaded with riches, the honorable testimonies of English liberality, as well as of his own merit. In 1746 Louis XV. arriving in that city, purchased four of his pictures. He had as much fire in his composition, and perhaps more genius than Brueghel; his figures are generally well placed, his ground skilfully broken; every small figure has its particular character, and occupies its proper place. In short, he is a painter of such a rank, that the value of his works must always increase. He died in 1750.

BREDE. See BRAID.

BREDEMEYERA, in botany, a genus of plants: class diadelphia, order octandria: CAL. three-leaved: coR. papilionaceous; drupe, nut two-celled. One species, B. floribunda, a shrub with small, white, panicled flower, native of the Caraccas.

BREECH', v. & n. Goth. brek; a divi-
BREECH'ES, N.
sion, a fork; Swedish

BREECH'ING. N. Sbrak; Teut. bruche; division of the legs, the backside, the hinder Ang.-Sax. brac; Welch breg; Irish bristig; the part. The part broken in two, or divided, as the thighs from the body. Breech is the part, and breeches that which covers it. Goth. bræken, brokes; Ang.-Sax. broc, bræc, bræccæ; Armoric braghis; Irish brigis; Scot. breek; Welsh bryccan; Ital. bracca, Lat. bracca; Fr. brayes. To breech is to put on the breeches. To furnish a tight or close covering for the hinder or lower part of anything, as to breech a gun, breeching for a horse. Breeches are, in modern times, the exclusive prerogative of the superior gender.-Met. The emblem of masculine authority; not unfrequently usurped by the gentler But see our first example:

sex.

Prior.

Give him a single coat to make, he'd do't; A vest or breeches, singly; but the brute Could ne'er contrive all three to make a suit. King. BREECHES, a garment reaching from the waist to the knees. The Greeks wore their knees and legs bare, but the more barbarous nations of antiquity covered them with vestments, which were called avažupides. These vestments were also worn by the Scythians, the Aramaspi, the Amazons, the Phrygians, Syrians, &c. Among the Greeks this garment indicated slavery, and thence foreigners, or slaves brought from other countries, were always represented so clothed by their artists. The nations of the north, as the Dacians, the Parthians, the Sarmatians, &c. usually wore them, as may be seen by the sculptures on the Trajan column. They were also worn by the Gauls; and that part which was under the Roman dominion was called Gallia Braccata from this circumstance. We find mention made of breeches among the ancient Getæ, Sarmatæ, Gauls, Germans, and Britons. They afterwards got footing in Italy; some pretend as early as the time of Augustus; but that emperor's breeches, mentioned by Suetonius, were only swaths tied over his thighs. Breeches, however, were at last received into Italy, and grew so highly in fashion, that it was thought necessary, under Honorius and Arca

dius, to restrain them by law, and expel the braccari, or breeches-makers, out of the city; it being thought unworthy of a nation that commanded the world to wear the apparel of barbarians.

BREECHINGS, in the sea language, the ropes with which the great guns are lashed to the ships' side; so called, because made to pass round the breech of the gun.

BREED BATE.

BREED', v. & n. Ang -Sax. brytian, breBREED'ER, dan; Teut. baeren, from BREEDING, Goth. bera. See To BEAR, To BRING, BROOD, and BRAT. To occasion, to cause, to produce, generate, bring forth, to increase, to cherish, to bring up, to educate. A breed is a cast, a kind; a subdivision of species; a family, a generation. A hatch, a number produced at once; progeny, offspring. A breeder is that which produces any thing, a prolific female, and one that takes care to raise a peculiar species of any thing. Breed bate, one of those incendiaries in social life that makes, or seizes occasions for quarrelling. Breeding is elliptically used for good-breeding, well-bred, well trained in good society.

Ah, noble knight! what worthy meede Can wretched lady, quitt, from woful state, Yield you in lieu of this your gracious deed? Your vertue selfe her own reward shall breed, Even immortal prayse and glory wyde, Which I your vassall, by your prowesse freed, Shall through the world make to be notifyde.

dom hath bred for the space of some hundreds of Mr. Harding, and the worthiest divine Christenyears, were brought up together in the same university.

Hooker,

Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. Shaksp. I bring you witnesses, Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed. Id. I am a gentleman of blood and breeding. Shakspeare's King Lear. If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not As to thy friend; for when did friendship take A breed of barren metal of his friend?

Shakspeare's Merchant of Venice. Get thee to a nunnery; why would'st thou be a breeder of sinners? Id. Hamlet. Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad, Amongst the fairest breeders of our time.

Id. Titus Andronicus. My son Edgar! had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in? Id. King Lear.

An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no telltale, nor no breedbate.

Id. Merry Wives of Windsor,
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
The air is delicate.
Id. Macbeth.

But could youth last, and love still breed;
Had joys no date, and age no need;
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

Raleigh