neva for the rest of his life. There he
enjoyed the society of many distinguished persons, among whom was
(1809-1817) Madame de Stael. It was during this period that he published
his most celebrated work, _L'Homme du midi et l'homme du nord_ (1824), a
study of the influence of climate on different nations, the north being
exalted at the expense of the south. Among his other works are the
_Recherches sur la nature et les lois de l'imagination_ (1807), and the
_Etudes de l'homme, ou Recherches sur les facultes de penser et de
sentir_ (1821), but he was better as an observer than as a philosopher.

Lives by A. Steinlen (Lausanne, 1860), by C. Morell (Winterthur,
1861), and by R. Willy (Bern, 1898). See also vol. xiv. of
Sainte-Beuve's _Causeries du Lundi_. (W. A. B. C.)

BONUS (a jocular application of the Lat. _bonus_, for _bonum_, "a good
thing"), a sum paid to shareholders in a joint-stock company, as an
addition to the ordinary dividend, and generally given out of
accumulated profits, or out of profits gained from exceptional
transactions. As used by insurance companies, the word denotes the
addition made to the amount of a policy by a distribution _pro rata_ of
accumulated profits or surplus. In a more general sense, bonus is any
payment or remuneration over and above what is due and promised.

BONZE (from Japanese _bonzo_, probably a mispronunciation of Chinese
_fan sung_, "religious person"), the European name for the members of
the Buddhist religious orders of Japan and China. The word is loosely
used of all the Buddhist priests in those and the neighbouring
countries.

BOOK, the common name for any literary production of some bulk, now
applied particularly to a printed composition forming a volume, or, if
in more than one volume, a single organic literary work. The word is
also used descriptively for the internal divisions or sections of a
comprehensive work.

The word "book" is found with variations of form and gender in all the
Teutonic languages, the original form postulated for it being a strong
feminine _Boks_, which must have been used in the sense of a
writing-tablet. The most obvious connexion of this is with the old
English _boc_, a beech tree, and though this is not free from
philological difficulties, no probable alternative has been suggested.

As early as 2400 B.C., in Babylonia, legal decisions, revenue accounts,
&c. were inscribed in cuneiform characters on clay tab