in the philosophic studies, and in the Contes Drolatiques, Balzac has built up a work of art which answers to a mediaeval cathedral. There are subterranean places, haunted by the Vautrins and " Filles aux yeux d or ; " there are the seats of the money-changers, where the Nucingens sit at the receipt of custom ; there is the broad platform of everyday life, where the journalists intrigue, where love is sold for hire, where splendours and miseries abound, where the peasants cheat their lords, where women betray their husbands ; there are the shrines where pious ladies pass saintly days; there are the dizzy heights of thought and rapture, whence falls a ray from the supernatural light of Swedenborg; there are the lustful and hideous grotesques of the Contes Drolatiques. Through all swells, like the organ-tone, the ground-note and mingled murmur of Parisian life. The qualities of Balzac are his extraordinary range of knowledge, observation, sympathy, his steadfast determination to draw every line and shadow of his subject, his keen analysis of character and conduct. His defects are an over-insistance on detail, which hampers and bewilders rather than aids the imagination of his readers ; his tortured style, " a special language forged out of all the slangs, all the terminologies of science, of the studio, the laboratory, the coulisses;" his fondness for dwelling on the morbid pathology of human nature. With all these defects, and with the difficulty of judging any one of his tales separately, because each is only a fragment in the development of the immense Comedie Humaine, Balzac holds a more distinct and supreme place in French fiction than perhaps any English author does in the same field of
art.BALZAC, Jean Louis Guez de, a celebrated French writer, was born at Angouleme in 1594, His father was possessed of considerable property, and he himself was early befriended by the Cardinal de la Valette, who took him in his train to Rome. His letters written from that place to his acquaintances and to many who held a high position at the French court, were expressed so admirably, and showed such powers of eloquence, as to gain for him the highest renown. On his return from Italy he was at once and everywhere received as a master in the art of composi tion. The most extravagant compliments were showered upon him, and his head appears to have been turned a little by his success. In 1624 a collection of his Letters was published, and was received with great favour by the public. Soon afterwards a direct charge of plagiarism was made against Balzac in a pseudonymous tract, On the conformity of M. de Balzac s Eloquence ivith that of the. Greatest Personages of Past and Present Time. A terribly fierce paper war was excited by this pamphlet ; and Balzac, in disgust, retired to his own estate, where he continued his labour of composition. In 1634 he expressed a desire to enter the Academy, and was at once elected with universal acclamation. He died at Paris in 1654. His fame rests entirely upon the Letters, which, though empty, bombastic, and affected in matter, are written with great skill, and show a real mastery over the language. They introduced a new style ; and Balzac has thus the credit of being the first reformer of French prose, as bis contempo rary Malherbe was the first reformer of French poetry.
BAMBA, a province of Congo, on the western coast of Africa, lying to the S. of the River Ambriz. This district is fertile, abounds in gold, silver, copper, salt, <tc., and is said to be thickly populated. Its chief town, which bears the same name, was formerly of considerable importance, the climate being remarkably healthy for that region of Africa.
{{ti|1em|BAMBARRA, a country of inner Africa, on the Joliba or Upper Niger. The principal towns are Segu, Sansading, Jainima, Mursha, Jabbi, Sai, Kullikoro, Maraca-Duba, and Damba, in many of which the Mahometans have mosques. For further particulars see Africa, vol. i. p. 271.
BAMBARRA, a town of western Africa on a backwater of the Niger, of considerable commercial importance, and situated in a fertile plain, 115 miles S.S.W. of Timbuctoo. (See Barth s Travels in Central Africa, vol. iv. p. 354.)
BAMBERG, a town of Bavaria, in the circle of Upper Franconia, on the River Regnitz, 3 miles above its junction with the Maine, and 33 miles N. of Nuremberg, with which it is connected by railway. It is partially surrounded by walls and ditches, and is divided by the river and Ludwig s canal into three districts, which are connected by handsome bridges. The town is well built, and the streets are well paved and lighted. The cathedral, a noble struc ture in the Byzantine style of architecture, is surpassed by few of the kind in Germany. It was founded in 1004 by the Emperor Henry II., and finished in 1012, but was afterwards partially burnt, and rebuilt in 1110. It con tains the tombs of the founder and his empress Cunigunde, Conrad III., Pope Clement II., &c., and numerous monu ments and paintings by eminent masters. Among the other public buildings are St Martin s church, the palace (formerly the residence of the prince-bishops), town-house, and theatre. The Benedictine convent of St Michael was turned, in 1803, into a charitable institution for poor citizens known as Ludwig s hospital. Bamberg has nume rous literary and charitable institutions, as the lyceum, gymnasium, polytechnic, normal, and medical schools, a library, museum, picture-gallery, hospital, and workhouse. The trade is considerable ; cloths, sealing-wax, leather, tobacco, musical instruments, carriages, &c., are manu factured, and there are numerous breweries. The whole of the neighbouring district is like a vast garden, and fur nishes large supplies of liquorice, carrots, aniseed, cori ander, and other seeds. Bamberg was formerly the capital of an independent bishopric, which was secularized in 1801, and assigned to Bavaria in 1803. Population, 25,738.
BAMBOCCIO. See Laer, Peter Van.
BAMBOO, a genus (Bambusa} of arborercent grasses very generally distributed throughout the tropical lands of the globe, but found and cultivated especially in India, China, and the East Indian Archipelago. There is a large number of species enumerated ; but, as is the case with most plants under cultivation, much difficulty is found in distinguishing species from varieties produced by artificial selection. Bambusa arundinacea is the species most commonly referred to. It is a tree-like plant, rising to a height of 40, 60, or even 80 feet, with a hollow stem, shining as if varnished. The stem is extremely slender, not exceeding the thickness of 5 inches in some which are 50 feet high, and in others reaching 15 or 18 inches in diameter. The whole is divided into joints or septa called knots or internodes, the intervals between which in the case of some of the larger stems is several feet. These joints or divisions are formed by the crossing of the vascular bundles of fibres. They produce alternate lateral buds, which form small alternate branchlets springing from the base to the top, and, together with the narrow-pointed leaves issuing from them, give the plant an elegant feathered appearance as it waves in the wind. The rapidity of its growth is surprising. It attains its full height in a few months, and Mr Fortune records the observation of a growth of from 2 to 21 feet in a single day. In Malabar it is said to bear fruit wlaen fifteen years old, and then to die.
plantations by the Chinese. The plant is propagated by shoots or suckers deposited in pits 1 8 inches or 2 feet deep at the close of autumn or the beginning of winter. Various expedients are followed to obtain good bamboos ; one of
the most usual being to take a vigorous root and transplant