always friendly to Britain.

BHUTAN (20), an independent state in the Eastern Himalayas, with
magnificent scenery; subsidised by Britain; has a government like that of
Thibet; religion the same, though the people are at a low stage of
civilisation; the country exports horses, musk, and salt.

BIAF`RA, BIGHT OF, a large bay in the Gulf of Guinea, in W. Africa;
includes several islands, and receives into it the waters of the Calabar
rivers.

BIARD, AUGUSTE FRANCOIS, French _genre_ painter, born at Lyons;
journeyed round the world, sketching by the way; was successful in
rendering burlesque groups (1800-1882).

BIARRITZ, a bathing-place on the Bay of Biscay, 6 m. SW. of Bayonne;
became a place of fashionable resort by the visits of the Empress
Eugenie.

BIAS, one of the seven wise men of Greece, born at Priene, in Ionia;
lived in the 6th century B.C.; many wise sayings are ascribed to him;
was distinguished for his indifference to possessions, which moth and
rust can corrupt, and thieves break through and steal.

BIBLE, THE (i. e. the Book _par excellence_, and not so much a
book as a library of books), a collection of sacred writings divided into
two parts, the Old Testament and the New; the Old, written in Hebrew,
comprehending three groups of books, the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and
the Hagiographa, bearing on the religion, the history, the institutions,
and the manners of the Jews; and the New, written in Greek, comprehending
the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. The Old
Testament was translated into Greek at Alexandria by 72 Jews, 280 B.C.,
and is known as the Septuagint; and the whole book, Old and New, was
translated into Latin in a grotto near Bethlehem by St. Jerome, A.D.
385-404, and is known as the Vulgate, after which the two came to be
regarded by the Church as of equal divine authority and as sections of
one book. It may be permitted to note that the Bible is written
throughout, not in a speculative or a scientific, but a spiritual
interest, and that its final aim is to guide men in the way of life. The
spirit in which it is composed is the spirit of conviction; its essence,
both in the root of it and the fruit of it, is faith, and that primarily
in a moral power above, and ultimately a moral principle within, both
equally divine. The one principle of the book is that loyalty to the
divine commands is the one foundation of all well-being, individual and
social.