BOERS (Dutch, agriculturists, farmers), the name applied. to the Dutch colonists of the cape of Good Hope who are engaged in agriculture and the care of cattle. The B., gen erally, according to Dr. Liviugstone, "are a sober, industrious, and most hospitable body 01 peasantry." Very different, however, are certain of their numbers who have tied front English law, on various pretexts, and formed themselves into a republic in the Caslem mountains. Coming "with the prestige of white men and deliverers " from the cruelty of Kaffir clriefs, they were received by the Betjuans gladly, who, however, soon found out that their new friends were much less desirable as neighbors than their old enemies. The 13. force even those tribes of the Betjuaus who are most friendly towards them to perform all kinds of field labor for nothing; and not only this, but they also compel them to find their own Implements of labor and their own food. They steal domestic servants from the more hostile tribes in the most cowardly and cold-blooded way imaginable. The plan of operation is thus described by Dr. Livingstone: " One or two friendly tribes are forced to a party of mounted Boers, and these expeditions eau be got up only in the winter, when horses may be used without danger of being lost by disease. When they reach the tribe to be attacked, the friendly natives are ranged in front, to form, as they say, " a shield;• the Boers then coolly fire over their heads. till the devoted people flee, and leave cattle, wives, and children to the captors. This was done in nine cases, during my residence in the interior, and on no occasion was a drop of Boer's blood shed." And yet these B. proudly boast themselves •• Chris tian!" They have an immense contempt for the ignorance of the natives. and told Dr. Livingstone that he might as well teach baboons as Africans. They, however, declined a test which the missionary proposed—viz., to be examined whether they or his native attendants could read best. In his opinion, they are quite as degraded as the blacks whom they despise. See ORANGE RIVER FREE STATE.
BOkTIIIIIS, Axicirs SEVERINI7S (to which a few MSS. add 7orquatne). Homan statesman and philosopher, was b. between 470 and 475 A.D. The family to which he belong,ed had been distinguished both fdr Its wealth and dignity for two cen turies. His own father held the office of consul, but dying while 13. was still a boy, the hit ter was brought up under the care of Festas. Symmachus, and other honorable Romans. Fie studied with sincere enthusiasm philosophy, mathematics, and poetry, translated and elucidated with laborious care the writings of Aristotle, and of the old mathema ticians Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemtens, and others; but the story of his 18 years' stay at Athens is entirely unhistorical. 13. soon attracted notice; he became a patrician boom the usual (Lev, a consul in 510, and also prineept senates. Having. moreover, gained
esteem and confidenceof Theedoric. king of the Goths, who had fixed the seat of . s 2:ov:eminent at Rome in the Year .)00. lie was appointed by that monarch inulixfer in in his court. ilis influence was invariably exercised for the good of and Iris countrymen owed it to him that the Gothic nile was so little oppressive. good fortune culminated in the prosperity of his two sons. who were made consuls in ;322. But his bold upri'slitness of conduct, springing from what seemed to have been the tial chanteteristics of the man—viz.. a strong faith in the truth of his philosophic etloc.;, and a eonra(se to regulate his official conduct by them—at last brought down upon his head the unscrupulous vengeance of those whom he had checked in llteir oppressions, and provoked by his virtues. ibewas accused of treasonable designs against :1 huolione: and the e ving beeoims elesponde (1 n im11:straist fril in his old isge, ls•tils induced to listen to the charges. B. was stripped or his dignities, his property was confiscated, and he himself, after having been imprisoned for some time at Pavia; was executed in C2-t or 526; according to one account, with circumstances of horrible cruelty. During his imprisonment, B. wrote his famous De (loomlottione Philosophic'', divided into 3 books, and composed in the form of a dialogue, in which B. himself holds a conversation with Philosophy, who shows him the mutability of all earthly fortune, and the insecurity of everything save virtue. The work is composed in a style which happily imitates the best models of the Augustan age, and the frequent fragments of poetry which are inter spersed throughout the dialogue arc distinguished by their truthfulness of feeling and metrical accuracy. The Conso/atio is piously theistic in its language, but affords no indi cation that B. was a Christian; and if the doctrinal treatises ascribed to him are, as the acutest criticism maintains, not genuine, we must class him in religion rather with Mar cus Aurelius than with his alleged friend, St. Benedict. Ile was the last Roman writer of any mark who understood the Greek language and literature. During the middle ages, Ire was regarded with profound reverence, as the Augustine of philosophy, but on the introduction of the Aristotelian metaphysics in the 13th c., his reputation gradually sank. The first. edition of B.'s entire works appeared at Venice, 1101-92; a more cor rect one at Basel, 1570. The oldest edition of the Consolatio is that published at NOrn berg, 1473, but many manuscript translations into various languages had appeared long before the invention of printing. Among these may be mentioned that by king Alfred into Anglo-Saxon.