BENTLEY BENTON 5-11 ness, and adroitness, succeeded in keeping his office after sentence of deprivation had been pronounced against him, and retained it until his death. In 1717 the regius professorship of divinity at Cambridge, by far the richest in Europe, became vacant. Bentley, notwith- standing the doubt whether, as master of Trinity, he could also hold that office, procured himself to be elected. His opening lecture treated of the text (1 John v. 7) on the three heavenly witnesses. He maintained the doc- trine of the Trinity, but decidedly rejected the verse, of which he gave the history. When George I. visited Cambridge, and several per- sons were nominated to the degree of D. D., Bentley exacted four guineas from each candi- date in addition to the usual fees. For this he was tried in the court of the vice chancellor of the university, degraded, and deprived of all his degrees, in October, 1718. He appealed to the law, and after more than five years' litiga- tion the court of king's bench issued a man- damus compelling the university to reinstate him. Amid all these litigious and troublesome years Bentley pursued his scholastic labors as eagerly as if nothing else had been on his mind. After publishing the appendix to the Chronicle of Malala he began to prepare editions of Phi- lostratus, of Hesychius, and of the Latin poet Manilius; but the Philostratus, though ready for the press, never appeared, nor is it 'known what has become of it. In 1695 he assisted Evelyn in the revision of his Numismata. In 1696 he wrote the notes and made the emenda- tions of the text of Callimachus. He wrote in 1708 three critical epistles on the " Plutus " and the "Clouds" of Aristophanes, to assist his friend Ludolf Kuster in his edition of that poet. In 1710 he prepared emendations on 323 pas- sages in the "Fragments of Menander and Philemon," which had been edited, but with great ignorance of Greek, by Le Clerc. In 1711 he completed his edition of Horace, the most popular of all his publications. In 1713 he re- plied to Anthony Collins's " Discourse on Free Thinking." In 1716 he proposed, in a letter to Archbishop Wake, to restore the original text of the New Testament, exactly as it was at the time of the council of Nice, using the Vulgate to correct the Greek text. The project, which was severely attacked by Dr. Conyers Middle- ton, was never proceeded with. In 1726 he published annotated and revised editions of Terence and Phaadrus. Toward the close of 1731 he undertook his edition of "Paradise Lost," and published it, with notes and correc- tions of the text, in January, 1732. It has some marks of ability, but, as a whole, is not worthy of his pen. In 1726 he had noted and corrected the whole of Homer, chiefly with a view to the restoration of the digainma to its place and functions in the metre. In 1732 he seriously applied himself to complete this edition. It was never published, but the MS. was finally transmitted to Gottingen by Trinity college, for the use of Heyne, who in his own edition of Homer acknowledged the profound- est obligations to it, ,and made the world cir- cumstantially acquainted with its merits. Four- teen years after Bentley's death Horace Wai- pole published at his private press an edition of Lucan, illustrated by the notes of Bentley, combined with those of Grotius. The sugges- tions contained in it for the emendation of the text are excellent. Bentley had an overween- ing opinion of his own dignity and rights, and_ a determination in upholding both, which op-' position only increased. In private, though his manner was stately, if not severe, he is repre- sented as having been amiable. He was perhaps the best classical scholar England has ever pro- duced. By the close attention to verbal details, of which he set an example, the facts have been collected upon which the modern science of comparative philology is founded. His life, by Dr. J. H. Monk, first bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (4to, 1830), is an elaborate pro- duction, leaning rather against Bentley. BENTLEY, Robert, an English botanist, born at Hitchin, Herts, in 1823. He early became a member of the royal college of surgeons, and subsequently professor of botany in King's col- lege, London, as well as of materia rnedica and botany to the pharmaceutical society of Great Britain, dean of the medical faculty, and president of the British pharmaceutical con- gress in 1866 and 1867. He applies botany to medicine, was one of the editors of Pereira's " Manual of Materia Medica and Therapeutics," and has published a " Manual of Botany," which recently reached a second edition. BENTON, the name of counties in eight of the United States. I. A W. central county of Mis- sissippi, bordering on Tennessee, bounded S. W. by the Tallahatchee river, and watered by Tippah creek and Wolf river ; organized since the census of 1870. According to state re- ports, the county in 1870 produced 3,030 bales of cotton. The Mississippi Central railroad passes through the N. W. corner. II. The N. W. county of Arkansas, bounded N. by Mis- souri and W. by the Indian territory; area, 900 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 13,831, of whom 182 were colored. It is watered by the White and Illinois rivers and affluents of the N eosho and Elk. The chief productions in 1870 were 84,- 779 bushels of wheat, 340,046 of Indian corn, 40,569 of oats, 85,280 Ibs. of tobacco, 13,740 of wool, and 20,132 gallons of sorghum molas- ses. There were 4,336 horses, 829 mules and asses, 3,337 milch cows, 540 working oxen, 2,978 other cattle, 7,987 sheep, and 24,202 swine. Capital, Bentonville. III. A N". W. county of Tennessee, bounded E. by the Tennes- see river and N. W. by the Big Sandy ; area, 400 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 8,234, of whom 452 were colored. The Nashville and Northwest- ern railroad passes through the county, and the N. W. corner is crossed by the Memphis and Louisville railroad. The soil is good. The chief productions in 1870 were 25,753 bushels of wheat, 357,403 of Indian corn, 412,435 Ibs.
