hymn of praise and thanksgiving sung by Zechariah, a Jewish priest of the line of Aaron, on the occasion of the circumcision and naming of his son, John the Baptist. ...
a particular kind of land tenure that came into use in the 8th century in the kingdom of the Franks. A Frankish sovereign or lord, the seigneur, leased an estate ...
in Anglo-American law, one for whose benefit a trust is created. Beneficiaries of private trusts must be identifiable legal entities (natural persons or corporations) or a class of persons (such ...
in theatre, originally a supplemental performance by an actor or actress, who kept all or part of the proceeds to compensate for insufficient salary. In modern times a benefit performance ...
German philosopher and psychologist who argued that inductive psychology was the foundation for the study of all philosophical disciplines. He rejected the existing idealism for a form of associationism influenced ...
economic union of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg, with the objective of bringing about total economic integration by ensuring free circulation of persons, goods, capital, and services; by following a ...
statesman, foreign minister, and president, a founder of modern Czechoslovakia who forged its Western-oriented foreign policy between World Wars I and II but capitulated to Hitler's demands during the Czech ...
in calligraphy, southern Italian hand, cultivated in the mother house of the Benedictine order at Montecassino. It has a peculiar jerky rhythm and retains individual cursive forms, which together with ...
city, capital and archiepiscopal see of Benevento provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. The city lies on a ridge between the Calore and Sabato rivers, northeast of Naples. It originated as ...
in English history, any sum of money, disguised as a gift, extorted by various English kings, from Edward IV to James I, from their subjects without Parliament's consent. Forced loans ...
German scholar of Sanskrit and comparative linguistics whose works, particularly his edition of the ancient collection of Indian animal fables known as the Panca-tantra, contributed in a major way to ...
historic region in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, generally corresponding to the area inhabited by speakers of the Bengali language and now divided between the Indian state of ...
large but relatively shallow embayment of the northeastern Indian Ocean, occupying an area of 839,000 square miles (2,173,000 square kilometres). It lies roughly between latitudes 5° and 22° N and ...
(1905), division of Bengal carried out by the British viceroy in India, Lord Curzon, despite strong Indian nationalist opposition and Hindu Bengali indignation. It began a shift of the Indian ...
eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. Two Bengali dialects are significant: Sadhu-Bhasa, the literary language, which has a vocabulary with many Sanskrit words ...
the body of writings in the Bengali language of the Indian subcontinent. Its earliest extant work is a pre-12th-century collection of lyrics that reflect the beliefs and practices of the ...
island in the Strait of Malacca, off the eastern coast of Sumatra, Riau provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. The island, situated about 120 miles (195 km) west of Singapore, stretches northwest-southeast for ...
provinsi (province), southwestern Sumatra, Indonesia, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the west and by the provinces of Sumatera Barat (West Sumatra) on the north, Jambi and ...
city and capital of Bengkulu provinsi (province), southwestern Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a port on the Indian Ocean, 180 miles (289 km) southwest of Palembang. The British ...
poet, biographer, novelist, and writer of numerous informal essays, a genre that he virtually introduced to Swedish literature and that brought him his greatest success.
city, western Angola. The city was founded in 1617 around Sao Filipe fortress and was one of the bases for Portuguese expansion in Africa. Benguela is the political and economic ...
oceanic current that is a branch of the West Wind Drift of the Southern Hemisphere. It flows northward in the South Atlantic Ocean along the west coast of southern Africa ...
oasis town, west-central Algeria. It lies on the western edge of the Grand Erg (sand dunes) Occidental. The Wadi Saoura divides the stony desert and the sand dunes to the ...
Egyptian Middle Kingdom archaeological site, on the eastern bank of the Nile, roughly 155 miles (245 km) south of Cairo. The site is noted for its rock-cut tombs of the ...
town, one of five in the oasis of M'zab (q.v.), central Algeria, in the Sahara. The name is derived from Berber words meaning "the sons of those who keep the ...
town, central Morocco. It is situated among the foothills of the Moyen Atlas (Middle Atlas) mountains. The Kasba bel-Kush, at the town entrance, was built in the 17th century and ...
river in Bolivia, formed by many confluents arising in the north sector of the Cordillera Real north of La Paz, the national capital. It flows northeast through the densely forested ...
port, town, northwestern Algeria. It lies midway between Cape Falcon and Cape l'Eau. With the discovery of iron deposits in the surrounding hills, an artificial harbour enclosing 45 acres (18 ...
Japanese wood-block prints hand-coloured with a saffron-derived pinkish rose red and a few subsidiary colours. This technique was first used by ukiyo-e (q.v.) artists in 1710 and continued until the ...
country of western Africa. It consists of a narrow wedge of territory extending northward for about 420 miles (675 kilometres) from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, on ...
capital and largest city of Edo state, southern Nigeria. Benin City is situated on a branch of the Benin River and lies along the main highways from Lagos to the ...
bay of the Atlantic Ocean on the western African coast that extends eastward for about 400 miles (640 km) from Cape St. Paul (Ghana) to the Nun outlet of the ...
short-story writer, novelist, and essayist who was one of the most notable Latin American writers to emerge in the second half of the 20th century. His first book, the short-story ...
poet who was an intimate of several great men of Renaissance Florence. He is important for his versification of the philosopher Marsilio Ficino's translation of Plato's Symposium, which influenced other ...
according to biblical tradition, one of the 12 tribes that constituted the people of Israel, and one of the two tribes (along with Judah) that later became the Jewish people. ...
rabbi who was the first known European traveler to approach the frontiers of China and whose account of his journey, Massa'ot (The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, 1907), illuminates the ...
American architect who was an early follower of Charles Bulfinch. His greatest influence on American architecture, lasting until about 1860, was through the publication of several handbooks, from which many ...
prominent lawyer in the United States before the American Civil War (1861-65) and in England after that conflict; he also held high offices in the government of the Confederate States ...
warrior-monk whose legendary superhuman exploits in the service of his master, the famous warrior Minamoto Yoshitsune, made him one of the most popular figures in Japanese history and a favourite ...
German poet and essayist whose expressionistic pessimism and conjurations of decay in the period immediately after World War I gradually mellowed into a philosophy of pragmatism. Perhaps the most influential ...
British novelist, playwright, critic, and essayist whose major works form an important link between the English novel and the mainstream of European realism.
American church worker whose energetic efforts on behalf of Christian education and missions culminated in the granting of full lay status to women in the Southern Methodist Church.
American pioneer aviator who piloted the explorer Richard E. Byrd on the first successful flight over the North Pole on May 9, 1926. For this feat both Bennett and Byrd ...
American physicist who discovered (1934) the pinch effect, an electromagnetic process that may offer a way to magnetically confine a plasma at temperatures high enough for controlled nuclear fusion reactions ...
county, southwestern Vermont, U.S., bordered by New York state to the west, Massachusetts to the south, and the Green Mountains to the east. The Taconic Mountains in the west are ...
town (township), one of the seats of Bennington county (the other is Manchester Village), in the southwest corner of Vermont, U.S., on the Walloomsac River between the Taconic Range and ...
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Bennington, Vt., U.S. Bennington is a liberal arts college comprising disciplines of literature and languages, social sciences, visual arts, music, dance, drama, and ...
(August 16, 1777), in the American Revolution, victory by American militiamen defending colonial military stores in Bennington, Vermont, against a British raiding party.
