BEYLE, Marie-Henri, better known as De Stendhal, the most celebrated of his many noms de plume, was born at Grenoble on the 23d January 1783. His father was an avocat at the parliament of Grenoble, and his family, though not noble, was of good descent. His early education was conducted mainly by priests, who seem to have misunderstood his very peculiar character, and for whom he ever afterwards entertained a profound aversion and contempt. At the age of twelve he was sent to the École Centrale, newly established at Grenoble, and continued in attendance for four years, during which time he distinguished himself in all his studies, z In 1799 he was preparing to become a candidate for the École Polytechnique when his plans were disturbed by an offer from Μ. Daru, a distant relative, cf some appointment connected with the ministry for war. In the following year he accompanied Μ. Daru to Milan, on the chance of some suitable post offering itself. He was present at the battle of Marengo; and carried away, apparently, by the military enthusiasm consequent on Napoleon’s brilliant victories, he suddenly enlisted . as quartermaster in a dragoon regiment. In a month’s time he was made sub-lieutenant, and for about a year and a half acted as aide-de-camp to General Michaud. But the routine of garrison life, to which he was soon afterwards condemned, made him heartily tired of a military career. On the conclusion of the peace of Amiens (1802) he threw up his commission, and went to reside with his family at Grenoble. From them he obtained means to take up his abode in Paris, where for some time he continued to devote himself to study and literary work. In 1805 he suddenly accepted a situation as clerk in a mercantile house at Marseilles, and remained there nearly a ...year,—in fact, till the actress, for whose sake he had taken this curious step, married a wealthy Russian. In the following year he again accompanied Μ. Daru into Germany, and was appointed to superintend the possessions of the emperor in Brunswick. Whatever German he.learnt there was afterwards completely forgotten. In his official capacity as connected with the commissariat he took part in the ill-fated Russian campaign of 1812, and remained loyal to the fallen emperor. He declined to lay himself out for employment under the new régime, and retired to Milan, where he resided till 1821. His early works, chiefly on painting and music, date from this period of his life. The Lettres écrites de Vienne sur Haydn, suivies d'une Vie de Mozart, &c., which appeared in 1814 under the pseudonym of Alexandre César Bombet, were mainly plagiarized from Carpani. With some slight alterations the work was reproduced in 1817 as Vies de Haydn, Mozart, et Metastase. In the same year he published, under various assumed names, Histoire de la Peinture en Italie, which contains some good but unsystematic criticism, and Rome, Naples, et Florence en 1817. In 1821 he was compelled to return to France, an unfounded suspicion that he was a French spy having somehow arisen at Milan. During the following nine years he resided at Paris, and gradually began to acquire his high reputation as an accomplished litterateur and man of the world. He was an admirable talker and full of anecdote, which in his opinion ought to form the staple of conversation. His fine analytic powers were displayed to full advantage in the curious work, De Ï Amour, which he published in 1822, but the book did not find an appreciative audience. The Vie de Rossini, which followed, was more successful; and the pamphlet Racine et Shakespeare did good service for the cause of Romanticism in its struggle with the rigid classical canons of older French literature. In 1829 appeared his Promenades dans Rome, full of information, criticism, and original observation, but somewhat chaotic in form. He was appointed consul at Trieste in 1830, and three years later he quitted that place with the greatest joy for a similar post at Civita Vecchia. There he remained till 1841, with frequent absences, one extending from 1836 to 1839, during which he paid a short visit to London. In 1841 his health gave way, and he returned to Paris, where he died on the 22d March 1842.
Beyle, during his lifetime, was known to but a very small circle of readers; within the last twenty years, however, his popularity has greatly increased, and his many fine powers have received due recognition. It is not probable that he will ever have a very extended influence; his writings are “caviare to the general,” and can only be appreciated by those qualified to take pleasure in the cynical reflections of mere egotism. For Beyle’s philosophical creed, so far as he can be said to have had one, was materialism, and his ideal of humanity aesthetically refined selfishness. His strength lay in keen criticism and in acute psychological analysis, qualities which gave value to his writings on art, but debarred him from success in the department of fiction. His principal novels, Le Rouge et le Noir, and La Chartreuse de Parme, fell comparatively dead, though the latter was received with extravagant eulogy by Balzac, and has recently become more popular. His genius was too analytic to be suited for romance writings; the novels want consistency of plot and motive power in the characters. Zα Chartreuse, however, the best of them, gives an admirable picture of the involved intrigues of a small Italian court, a subject with which Beyle was specially qualified to deal. The peculiar value of all his writings consists in the amount of thinking which they excite, though it must be confessed that the subjects are frequently unworthy of the attention devoted to them. The fullest account of Beyle is that by A. A. Paton, Henry Beyle, a Critical and Biographical Study, 1874. See also Golomb’s prefaces to La Chartreuse and the Romans et Nouvelles, Mérimée's preface to the Correspondance Inedite, and Sainte-Beuve’s articles in the Causeries du Lundi.
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BEYROUT, Beirout, or Bairut, the most important seaport town of Syria, on the coast of the Mediterranean, in the pashalic of Acre, 57 miles W.N.W. of Damascus. It is situated on rising ground on the northern side of the promontory of the Jebel-er-Rosheh, which forms the spacious bay of St George’s, a short distance to the west of the mouth of a stream to which it gives its name—Nahr-Beirut, the ancient Magoras. The surrounding hills consist of reddish sand, interspersed with rocks, and covered with a light soil. The roadstead to the N.E. of the town is sheltered from the S.W. wind, but is exposed to the W. and the N.W. The ancient harbour is now choked up, and all that remains of the artificial erections is a pier or causeway at the N.W. extremity of the town, at which boats can discharge. It is supported on arches of unequal size, and is partly constructed of ancient marble columns, many of which still stand along its front, and are used for mooring the lesser vessels. In 1874 the authorities determined to construct a small harbour, and <£10,000 was allotted for the purpose. The city proper is an irregular square, open towards the sea, and surrounded on the land sides by a substantial tower-flanked wall, built by Djezzar Pasha. At the N.W. corner are two castellated buildings, built on the rocks. The streets are wider than is usual in Syrian towns, and are paved with large stones; the houses are for the most part lofty and spacious. Formerly, there were deep channels of water flowing down the middle of the streets, but these have been removed. The suburbs of the city, which extend around it with a radius of a mile and a half, are beautifully situated, interspersed with gardens, and planted with fruit trees. During the hot season the wealthier inhabitants remove ...inland to the villages of Beit-Miry, Brumanah, or Shemlin, on the lower slopes of the Lebanon. Besides the mosques, bazaars, and other native buildings with which it is provided, the city of Beyrout possesses numerous European edifices and institutions. There are six Roman Catholic convents or monasteries, with churches and schools attached, and the sisters of charity maintain an orphanage and hospital. The Prussians support a well-organized school, under the management of a Protestant sisterhood, and the American missionaries have, among other establishments, a hospital and medical school. A girl’s school was begun in 1860 bj' Mrs Thompson, and a ragged school in 1863. A native Christian community has been for some time in existence; and in 1847 a native society of arts and sciences was established. Formerly regarded as the port of Damascus, Beyrout has now become by far the more important of the two cities. It is the seat of various consular establishments, and possesses a quarantine, a custom-house, and post-offices. It exports silk, wool, bitumen, rags, sponges, and skins, and imports European goods for a large part of Syria. In 1871 the value of the exports, which were destined chiefly for France and England, was £530,000; while that of the imports, which were mainly from England and Germany, amounted to £1,240,000. The coasting trade, earned on by small native craft, consists principally of timber, firewood, charcoal, and straw. A lighthouse, 98 feet high, was erected in 1864 on the neighbouring cape of Ras Beyrout. A carriage road was constructed, by a French company about 1863, connecting Beyrout with Damascus. An English company completed in 1874 an extensive system of water-works, by which a large supply is brought from the Nahr-el-Kelb (the Dog River or Lycus), a distance of 9 miles; the aqueduct is taken at one place through a tunnel 1040 yards long, and the water is brought to two reservoirs at the entrance of the town, each of a capacity of 110,000 cubic feet; public fountains, barracks, and mosques are supplied free of charge. The population is of a various character, comprising Druses, Maronites, Greeks, Turks, Arabs, and other races or nationalities. It was greatly increased about 1860 by an immigration of Christian natives who had fled from persecution in Mount Lebanon, Hasbeya, and Damascus. Estimated at only 15,000 in 1838, the number of inhabitants had risen in 1871 to 70,000.
Beyrout is a place of great antiquity, and may perhaps be identified with the Berothah of the Phoenicians. For a time at least it was under the supremacy of Sidon. Destroyed by Trypho, the Syrian usurper, about 140 b.c., it was restored by the elder Agrippa about 41 A.D., raised to the rank of a Roman colony, and adorned with an amphitheatre and various splendid buildings. In the 3d century it became the scat of a school of jurisprudence, which long maintained its reputation, and was attended by several eminent men. During the reign of Justinian, in fact, Beyrout was the only place in the empire, except Rome and Constantinople, where law was permitted to be taught, and of the three the Syrian school, under the management of Theophilus and Dorotheus, appears to have stood highest in general estimation. But the injury inflicted on the city by an earthquake in 551 led to the removal of the school to Sidon, and not long after the building in which it had been held was totally consumed by fire. In the time of the Crusades Beyrout again rose into importance, and was captured by Baldwin I. in 1111, after a two months’ siege. Early in the 17th century it became a chief seat of the Druses, who retained their possession till 1763, when it was betrayed into the hands of the Turks. In 1772 it was bombarded and plundered by a Russian fleet, and in 1840 it was nearly destroyed by the attack of the English under Admiral Stopford.
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