Burr (William Henry), American author, b. 1819, Gloversville, N.Y., graduated at Union College, Schenectady, became a shorthand reporter to the Senate. In 1869 he retired and devoted himself to literary research. He is the anonymous author of Revelations of Antichrist, a learned book which exposes the obscurity of the origin of Christianity, and seeks to show that the historical Jesus lived almost a century before the Christian era. He has also written several pamphlets: Thomas Paine was Junius, 1880: Self Contradictions of the Bible; Is the Bible a Lying Humbug? A Roman Catholic Canard, etc. He has also frequently contributed to the Boston Investigator, the New York Truthseeker, and the Ironclad Age of Indianapolis.
Burton (Sir Richard Francis), traveller, linguist, and author, b. Barham House, Herts, 19 March, 1821. Intended for the Church, he matriculated at Oxford, but in 1842 entered the East India Company’s service, served on the staff of Sir C. Napier, and soon acquired reputation as an intrepid explorer. In ’51 he returned to England and started for Mecca and Medina, visiting those shrines unsuspected, as a Moslem pilgrim. He was chief of the staff of the Osmanli cavalry in the Crimean war, and has made many remarkable and dangerous expeditions in unknown lands; he discovered and opened the lake regions in Central Africa and explored the highlands of Brazil. He has been consul at Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus, and since 1872 at Trieste, and speaks over thirty languages. His latest work is a new translation of The Thousand Nights and a Night in 10 vols. Being threatened with a prosecution, he intended justifying “literal naturalism” from the Bible. Burton’s knowledge of Arabic is so perfect that when he used to read the tales to Arabs, they would roll on the ground in fits of laughter.
Butler (Samuel), poet, b. in Strensham, Worcestershire, Feb. 1612. In early life he came under the influence of Selden. He studied painting, and is said to have painted a head of Cromwell from life. He became clerk to Sir Samuel Luke, one of Cromwell’s Generals, whom he has satirised as Hudibras. This celebrated burlesque poem appeared in 1663 and became famous, but, although the king and court were charmed with its wit, the author was allowed to remain in poverty and obscurity till he died at Covent Garden, London, 25 Sept. 1680. Butler expressed the opinion that
“Religion is the interest of churches
That sell in other worlds in this to purchase.”
Buttmann (Philipp Karl), German philologist, b. Frankfort, 5 Dec. 1764. Became librarian of the Royal Library at Berlin. He edited many of the Greek Classics, wrote on the Myth of the Deluge, 1819, and a learned work on Mythology, 1828. Died Berlin, 21 June, 1829.
Buzot (François Léonard Nicolas), French Girondin, distinguished as an ardent Republican and a friend and lover of Madame Roland. Born at Evreux, 1 March, 1760; he died from starvation when hiding after the suppression of his party June, 1793.
Byelinsky (Vissarion G.) See [Belinsky].
Byron (George Gordon Noel) Lord, b. London, 22 Jan. 1788. He succeeded his grand-uncle William in 1798; was sent to Harrow and Cambridge. In 1807 he published his Hours of Idleness, and awoke one morning to find himself famous. His power was, however, first shown in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, in which he satirised his critics, 1809. He then travelled on the Continent, the result of which was seen in his Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and other works. He married 2 Jan. 1815, but a separation took place in the following year. Lord Byron then resided in Italy, where he made the acquaintance of Shelley. In 1823 he devoted his name and fortune to the cause of the Greek revolution, but was seized with fever and died at Missolonghi, 19 April, 1824. His drama of Cain: a Mystery, 1822, is his most serious utterance, and it shows a profound contempt for religious dogma. This feeling is also exhibited in his magnificent burlesque poem, The Vision of Judgment, which places him at the head of English satirists. In his letters to the Rev. Francis Hodgson, 1811, he distinctly says: “I do not believe in any revealed religion.... I will have nothing to do with your immortality; we are miserable enough in this life, without the absurdity of speculating upon another.... The basis of your religion is injustice; the Son of God, the pure, the immaculate, the innocent, is sacrificed for the guilty,” etc.