Whether we consult the voluminous dictionaries of the French language, or those treatises that profess to point out the method of studying and teaching the belles lettres, we find not, in the one or the other, either a clear definition, or a succinct explication of the words belles lettres, nor any summary of those sciences which are comprehended under that general and collective denomination. It appears to be a vague term, under which every one may include whatever he thinks proper. Sometimes we are told that by the belles lettres is meant, the knowledge of the arts of poetry and oratory; sometimes, that the true belles lettres are natural philosophy, geometry, and other essential parts of learning; and sometimes, that they comprehend the art of war, by land and sea: in short, they are made to include all that we know, and whatever we please; so that, in treating on the belles lettres, they talk of the use of the sacraments, &c. Some comprehend under the term, all those instructive and pleasing sciences which occupy the memory and the judgment, and do not make part either of the superior sciences, of the polite arts, or of mechanic professions: hence they make history, chronology, geography, genealogy, biography, philology, &c. the belles lettres. In a word, it were an endless task to attempt to enumerate all the parts of literature which different learned men have comprehended under this title. Nor would it be of any use to the reader for for us to pretend to fix the true import of the term. Whatever arts or sciences it may be supposed to include, they are severally explained in the course of this work.

**Belle-Ville**, a town of the Beaujolais in France, seated near the river Saône, in E. Long. 4° 46' N. Lat. 45° 5'.

**Bellay**, or **Bellay**, a town of France, with a bishop's see, and capital of Bugey. It is seated near the river Rhone, in E. Long. 5° 30' N. Lat. 45° 43'.

**Bellin** (Gentil), a Venetian painter, born in the year 1421. He was employed by the republic of Venice, and to him and his brother the Venetians are indebted for the noble works which are to be seen in the council-hall. We are told that Mahomet II., emperor of the Turks, having seen some of his performances, was so struck with them, that he wrote to the republic, inviting them to send him. The painter accordingly went to Constantinople, where he did many excellent pieces. Amongst the rest, he painted the decollation of St John the Baptist, whom the Turks revere as a great prophet. Mahomet admired the proportion and shadowing of the work; but he remarked one defect in regard to the skin of the neck, from which the head was separated; and in order to prove the truth of his observation, he sent for a slave and ordered his head to be struck off. This sight so shocked the painter, that he could not be easy till he had obtained his dismission; which the Grand Signior granted, and made him a present of a gold chain. The republic settled a pension upon him at his return, and made him a knight of St Mark. He died in 1501, in the 80th year of his age.

John Bellino, his brother, painted with more art and sweetness than he; and died in 1512, aged 90.