Story :The Boy and the Wolf

 

The Boy and the Wolf

Henry Henry .Longfellow                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

                      

                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                           

Inspirational Story

In France there once lived a famous man who was known as the Marquis de Lafayette. When he was a little boy, his mother called him Gilbert.

 

Gilbert de Lafayette's father and grandfather and great-grandfather had all been brave and noble men. He was very proud to think of this, and he wished that he might grow up to be like them.

 

His home was in the country not far from a great forest. Often, when he was a little lad, he took long walks among the trees with his mother.

 

"Mother," he would say, "do not be afraid. I am with you, and I will not let anything hurt you."

 

One day word came that a savage wolf had been seen in the forest. Men said that it was a very large wolf and that it had killed some of the farmers' sheep.

 

"How I should like to meet that wolf," said little Gilbert.

 

He was only seven years old, but now all his thoughts were about the savage beast that was in the forest.

 

"Shall we take a walk this morning?" asked his mother.

 

"Oh, yes!" said Gilbert. "Perhaps we may see that wolf among the trees.

But don't be afraid."

 

 

His mother smiled, for she felt quite sure that there was no danger.

 

They did not go far into the woods. The mother sat down in the shade of a tree and began to read in a new book which she had bought the day before. The boy played on the grass near by.

 

The sun was warm. The bees were buzzing among the flowers. The small birds were singing softly. Gilbert looked up from his play and saw that his mother was very deeply interested in her book.

 

"Now for the wolf!" he said to himself.

 

He walked quickly, but very quietly, down the pathway into the darker woods. He looked eagerly around, but saw only a squirrel frisking among the trees and a rabbit hopping across the road.

 

Soon he came to a wilder place. There the bushes were very close together and the pathway came to an end. He pushed the bushes aside and went a little farther. How still everything was!

 

He could see a green open space just beyond; and then the woods seemed to be thicker and darker. "This is just the place for that wolf," he thought.

 

Then, all at once, he heard footsteps. Something was pushing its way through the bushes. It was coming toward him.

 

"It's the wolf, I'm sure! It will not see me till it comes very near. Then I will jump out and throw my arms around its neck and choke it to death."

 

The animal was coming nearer. He could hear its footsteps. He could hear its heavy breathing. He stood very still and waited.

 

"It will try to bite me," he thought. "Perhaps it will scratch me with its sharp claws. But I will be brave. I will not cry out. I will choke it with my strong arms. Then I will drag it out of the bushes and call mamma to come and see it."

 

The beast was very close to him now. He could see its shadow as he peeped out through the clusters of leaves. His breath came fast. He planted his feet firmly and made ready to spring.

 

"How proud mamma will be of her brave boy!"

 

Ah! there was the wolf! He saw its shaggy head and big round eyes. He leaped from his hiding place and clasped it round its neck.

 

It did not try to bite or scratch. It did not even growl. But it jumped quickly forward and threw Gilbert upon the ground. Then it ran out into the open space and stopped to gaze at him.

 

Gilbert was soon on his feet again. He was not hurt at all. He looked at the beast, and—what do you think it was?

 

It was not a wolf. It was only a pet calf that had come there to browse among the bushes.

 

The boy felt very much ashamed. He hurried back to the pathway, and then ran to his mother. Tears were in his eyes; but he tried to look brave. "O Gilbert, where have you been?" said his mother.

 

Then he told her all that had happened. His lips quivered and he began to cry.

 

"Never mind, my dear," said his mother. "You were very brave, and it is lucky that the wolf was not there. You faced what you thought was a great danger, and you were not afraid. You are my hero."

 

When the American people were fighting to free themselves from the rule of the king of England, the Marquis de Lafayette helped them with men and money. He was the friend of Washington. His name is remembered in our country as that of a brave and noble man.

With affection,

Ruben

 

Felix Hoffmann

 

Felix Hoffmann

Pharmacy advertising Aspirin on Adolf Hitler Strasse in Wermsdorf, Saxony, Germany, in 1936. Wikimedia

Fuente:Quimica facil.net

From Wikipedia, the free enciclopedia

Felix Hoffmann (21 January 1868 – 8 February 1946) was a German chemist notable for re-synthesising diamorphine (independently from C.R. Alder Wright who synthesized it 23 years earlier), which was popularized under the Bayer trade name of "heroin". He is also credited with synthesizing aspirin, though whether he did this under his own initiative or under the instruction of Arthur Eichengrün is contested.

 

Career

Felix Hoffmann was born on 21 January 1868 in Ludwigsburg, Germany, the son of an industrialist. In 1889, he started studying chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich to study pharmacy and ended it in 1890 with the pharmaceutical state exam. In 1891 he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Munich. Two years later he earned his doctorate, also magna cum laude, after completing his thesis titled "On certain derivatives of dihydroanthracene".[1] In 1894, he joined Bayer as a research chemist.

Here's a lovely story :Here's a lovely story that some of you may know.

A chemist named Felix Hoffmann witnessed his poor, arthritic father's stomach ache every day due to the medication prescribed to alleviate his illness, salicylic acid. Since he worked for the pharmaceutical company Bayer, he decided to take advantage of his position as an employee in the sector to try to put an end to this painful family situation.

A chemist named Felix Hoffmann witnessed his poor, arthritic father's stomach ache every day due to the medication prescribed to alleviate his illness, salicylic acid. Since he worked for the pharmaceutical company Bayer, he decided to take advantage of his position as an employee in the sector to try to put an end to this painful family situation.

 

On 10 August 1897 Hoffmann synthesized acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) while working at Bayer under Arthur Eichengrün. By combining salicylic acid with acetic acid, he succeeded in creating ASA in a chemically pure and stable form. The pharmacologist responsible for verifying these results was skeptical at first, yet once several large-scale studies to investigate the substance's efficacy and tolerability had been completed, it was found to be an analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory substance. The company then worked to develop a cost-effective production process that would facilitate the promising active ingredient to be supplied as a pharmaceutical product. In 1899 it was marketed for the first time under the trade name "Aspirin", initially as a powder supplied in glass bottles.[2]

 

He also synthesized diamorphine (heroin), previously achieved by Charles Romley Alder Wright[2] by acetylating different molecules. It was named Heroin due to its "heroic" nature since it was used to medicate a variety of medical illnesses from child coughs to war injuries. It was also used to cure morphine addicts and would result in worse addictions and increasing tolerance levels to the drug over time.[3]

 

Following the synthesis of aspirin and heroin, Hoffmann moved to the pharmaceutical marketing department where he stayed until his retirement in 1928.[1]

 

Hoffman was never married and died on 8 February 1946 in Switzerland. He had no known children.

 

Aspirin invention controversy

Hoffmann first claimed to be the "inventor" of aspirin (as opposed to just the synthesizer) in a footnote to a German encyclopedia published in 1934, saying that his father had complained about the bitter taste of sodium salicylate, the only drug then available to treat rheumatism. The large doses (6–8 grams) of sodium salicylate that were used to treat arthritis commonly irritated the stomach lining and caused patients considerable pain and irritation. He claimed that he began looking for a less acidic formation which led him to synthesize acetylsalicylic acid, a compound that shared the therapeutic properties of other salicylates but not the strong acidity that he believed caused stomach irritations.[4][2]

 

An alternative credit for developing aspirin has also been offered. In 1949, ex-Bayer employee Arthur Eichengrün published a paper in Pharmazie, in which he claimed to have planned and directed Hoffman's synthesis of aspirin along with the synthesis of several related compounds. He also claimed to be responsible for aspirin's initial surreptitious clinical testing. Finally, he claimed that Hoffmann's role was restricted to the initial lab synthesis using his (Eichengrün's) process and nothing more.[5] Eichengrün died the same month he published in Pharmazie.

 

The Eichengrün version was ignored by historians and chemists until 1999, when Walter Sneader of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow re-examined the case and came to the conclusion that indeed Eichengrün's account was convincing and correct and that Eichengrün deserved credit for the invention of aspirin.[6] Bayer denied this in a press release, asserting that the invention of aspirin was due to Hoffmann.[7]

 

Legacy

In 2002, he was inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame.

With affection,

Ruben

 

 

Famous Inspirational Poem

 

Famous Inspirational Poem

Rudyard Kipling was an English poet who lived from 1865-1936.

He also wrote many children's stories. The poem's line, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same," is written on the wall of the players' entrance at Wimbledon.

If

By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

 

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same:.

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

 

Rudyard Kipling. "If." Family Friend Poems, https:

With affection,

Ruben

 

  

Story : Saving the Birds

 

Saving the Birds

Inspirational Story

 

 

 

One day in spring, four men were riding on horseback along a country road. These men were lawyers, and they were going to the next town to attend court.

 

There had been a rain, and the ground was very soft. Water was dripping from the trees, and the grass was wet.

 

The four lawyers rode along, one behind another; for the pathway was narrow, and the mud on each side of it was deep. They rode slowly, and talked and laughed and were very jolly.

 

As they were passing through a grove of small trees, they heard a great fluttering over their heads and a feeble chirping in the grass by the roadside.

 

"Stith! stitch! stith!" came from the leafy branches above them.

 

"Cheep! cheep! cheep!" came from the wet grass.

 

"What is the matter here?" asked the first lawyer, whose name was Speed. "Oh, it's only some old robins!" said the second lawyer, whose name was Hardin. "The storm has blown two of the little ones out of the nest. They are too young to fly, and the mother bird is making a great fuss about it."

 

"What a pity! They'll die down there in the grass," said the third lawyer, whose name I forget.

 

"Oh, well! They're nothing but birds," said Mr. Hardin. "Why should we bother?"

 

"Yes, why should we?" said Mr. Speed.

 

The three men, as they passed, looked down and saw the little birds fluttering in the cold, wet grass. They saw the mother robin flying about, and crying to her mate.

 

Then they rode on, talking and laughing as before. In a few minutes they had forgotten about the birds.

 

But the fourth lawyer, whose name was Abraham Lincoln, stopped. He got down from his horse and very gently took the little ones up in his big warm hands.

 

They did not seem frightened, but chirped softly, as if they knew they were safe.

 

"Never mind, my little fellows," said Mr. Lincoln "I will put you in your own cozy little bed."

 

Then he looked up to find the nest from which they had fallen. It was high, much higher than he could reach.

 

But Mr. Lincoln could climb. He had climbed many a tree when he was a boy. He put the birds softly, one by one, into their warm little home. Two other baby birds were there, that had not fallen out. All cuddled down together and were very happy.

 

Soon the three lawyers who had ridden ahead stopped at a spring to give their horses water.

 

"Where is Lincoln?" asked one.

 

All were surprised to find that he was not with them.

 

"Do you remember those birds?" said Mr. Speed. "Very likely he has stopped to take care of them."

 

In a few minutes Mr. Lincoln joined them. His shoes were covered with mud; he had torn his coat on the thorny tree.

 

"Hello, Abraham!" said Mr. Hardin. "Where have you been?"

 

"I stopped a minute to give those birds to their mother," he answered.

 

"Well, we always thought you were a hero," said Mr. Speed. "Now we know it."

 

Then all three of them laughed heartily. They thought it so foolish that a strong man should take so much trouble just for some worthless young birds.

 

"Gentlemen," said Mr. Lincoln, "I could not have slept to-night, if I had left those helpless little robins to perish in the wet grass."

 

 

Abraham Lincoln afterwards became very famous as a lawyer and statesman. He was elected president. Next to Washington, he was the greatest American.

With affection,

Ruben

The French Revolution

 

The French Revolution

Inaugural session of the Estates General (May 5, 1789)

Stages of the French Revolution

Top Questions

1. What were the causes of the Reign of Terror?

Prior to the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror (1793–94), France was governed by the National Convention. Power in this assembly was divided between the more moderate Girondins, who sought a constitutional monarchy and economic liberalism and favored spreading the Revolution throughout Europe by means of war, and the Montagnards, who preferred a policy of radical egalitarianism. By the spring of 1793, the war was going badly, and France found itself surrounded by hostile powers while counterrevolutionary insurrections were spreading outward from the Vendée. A combination of food scarcity and rising prices led to the overthrow of the Girondins and increased the popular support of the Montagnards, who created the Committee of Public Safety to deal with the various crises. On September 5, 1793, the Convention decreed that “terror is the order of the day” and resolved that opposition to the Revolution needed to be crushed and eliminated so that the Revolution could succeed.

2.What major events took place during the Reign of Terror?

Laws were passed that defined those who should be arrested as counterrevolutionaries, and committees of surveillance were set up to identify suspects and issue arrest warrants. Later laws suspended the rights of suspects to both legal assistance and public trials and mandated execution of all those who were found guilty. Other laws set up government control of prices, confiscated lands from those found guilty of failing to support the Revolution, and brought public assistance to the poor and disabled. The French republican calendar was adopted as part of a program of de-Christianization. About 300,000 people were arrested, and 17,000 of them were tried and executed. As many as 23,000 more were killed without trial or died in prison. However, conscription raised a large army that turned the tide of the war in France’s favor.

 

3.How did the Reign of Terror end?

Maximilien Robespierre, president of the Jacobin Club, was also president of the National Convention and was the most prominent member of the Committee of Public Safety; many credited him with near dictatorial power. The excesses of the Reign of Terror combined with the decreased threat from other countries led to increased opposition to the Committee of Public Safety and to Robespierre himself. In July 1794 Robespierre was arrested and executed as were many of his fellow Jacobins, thereby ending the Reign of Terror, which was succeeded by the Thermidorian Reaction.

 

At the end of the 18th century, the Ancien Régime was faltering in France. Ignoring the changing times and unable to manage socioeconomic transformations, the monarchy continued to exercise its absolute power, consolidating and perpetuating the injustices and inequalities of feudal society. Due to the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, peasants were forced to bear the brunt of the tax burden. Since the middle of the century, however, Enlightenment intellectuals such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau had undermined the legitimacy of monarchical absolutism by formulating political principles (popular sovereignty, equality before the law, separation of powers) that were embraced by the bourgeoisie, an emerging social class that aspired to see its economic power reflected in the legal system.

 

 

Inaugural Session of the Estates General (May 5, 1789)

The immediate triggers of the French Revolution (1789-1799) were the country's financial bankruptcy and poor harvests, which generated widespread poverty and hunger. To resolve the state's serious economic and financial crisis, King Louis XVI convened the Estates General in May 1789, an assembly that brought together, separately, representatives of the three estates (the nobility, the clergy, and the people, or "Third Estate").

 

The Popular Revolt and the National Assembly (1789-1791)

 

The representatives of the Third Estate, led by the bourgeoisie, demanded the replacement of the traditional voting system (one vote per estate) with the individual vote. Faced with the rejection of their demands and the hesitant stance of the monarchy, they formed the National Assembly, proclaiming it the true repository of national sovereignty and inviting representatives of the other estates to join them. The members of the National Assembly, gathered in the Tennis Hall, swore on June 20, 1789, not to disband until they had given France a constitution.

 

The Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789)

Fearing that the king would dissolve the Assembly by force, the popular classes stormed the Bastille on July 14, a fortress that served as a prison and was a symbol of the absolutist monarchy. The French Revolution had begun and soon spread to other cities and rural areas, where the anti-seigneurial revolt known as "the Great Fear" broke out.

 

On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly, now the National Constituent Assembly, decreed the abolition of all feudal rights and privileges, and on August 26, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was published, based on the principles of "liberty, equality, and fraternity." Dominated by the more moderate sectors of the bourgeoisie, the Assembly developed extensive legislative work that culminated in the approval of the Constitution of 1791, which established popular sovereignty and the separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers.

 

The new order established France as a constitutional monarchy and combined the revolutionary achievements with respect for the king: the monarch and his ministers would retain executive power. Legislative power would be vested in the Legislative Assembly, whose members would be elected by census suffrage, as would the judges and members of the courts.

Arrest of the royal family at Varennes (June 21, 1791) 

Royal family return to Paris after trying to escape July 1791

Execution Louis 16

Antoinette

 

The constitutional process was not without difficulties, particularly in its final phase. While pretending to accept the reforms, Louis XVI secretly negotiated an intervention by foreign absolutist monarchies to end the revolution, and in June 1791, he staged a failed escape attempt that unleashed strong anti-monarchist sentiment. In July, the National Guard, a force created by the revolutionaries, had to violently suppress a republican demonstration on the Champ de Mars. In August, the kings of Austria and Prussia issued veiled threats of intervention. Nevertheless, the revolution continued: after the calling and holding of elections, the Legislative Assembly began its sessions on October 1, 1791.

 

The Constitutional Monarchy: The Legislative Assembly (1791-1792)

 

Subjected to intense pressure, the newly established constitutional monarchy would have little effect: it did not even survive a year. Although the Legislative Assembly enacted progressive measures, it was unable to satisfy the discontent of the working classes.

Fearing that the king would dissolve the Assembly by force, the popular classes stormed the Bastille on July 14, a fortress that served as a prison and was a symbol of the absolutist monarchy. The French Revolution had begun and soon spread to other cities and rural areas, where the anti-seigneurial revolt known as "the Great Fear" broke out.

 

On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly, now the National Constituent Assembly, decreed the abolition of all feudal rights and privileges, and on August 26, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was published, based on the principles of "liberty, equality, and fraternity." Dominated by the more moderate sectors of the bourgeoisie, the Assembly developed extensive legislative work that culminated in the approval of the Constitution of 1791, which established popular sovereignty and the separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers.

 

The new order established France as a constitutional monarchy and combined the revolutionary achievements with respect for the king: the monarch and his ministers would retain executive power. Legislative power would be vested in the Legislative Assembly, whose members would be elected by census suffrage, as would the judges and members of the courts.

 

 

The constitutional process was not without difficulties, particularly in its final phase. While pretending to accept the reforms, Louis XVI secretly negotiated an intervention by foreign absolutist monarchies to end the revolution, and in June 1791, he staged a failed escape attempt that unleashed strong anti-monarchist sentiment. In July, the National Guard, a force created by the revolutionaries, had to violently suppress a republican demonstration on the Champ de Mars. In August, the kings of Austria and Prussia issued veiled threats of intervention. Nevertheless, the revolution continued: after the calling and holding of elections, the Legislative Assembly began its sessions on October 1, 1791.

 

The Constitutional Monarchy: The Legislative Assembly (1791-1792)

 

Subject to intense pressure, the newly established constitutional monarchy would have little effect: it did not even survive a year. Although the Legislative Assembly enacted progressive measures, it was unable to satisfy the discontent of the working classes over the high cost of basic goods resulting from the worsening economic crisis.

Abroad, faced with the danger posed by the spread of revolutionary ideas to the rest of Europe, an alliance of absolutist forces (Austria and Prussia) was organized and entered into war with France on April 20, 1792. Successive defeats of the French armies radicalized the situation; the Jacobin left, a minority but influential republican group in the Legislative Assembly, demanded the election by universal suffrage of a National Convention and the establishment of a Republic.

 

The Assault on the Tuileries Palace (August 10, 1792)

 

A threatening declaration by a Prussian general (crudely expressing the counterrevolutionary aims of the war) sparked a new uprising of the popular masses (the "sans-culottes") in Paris. On August 10, 1792, they stormed the Tuileries Palace, the king's residence, where documents proving his treason were found. The monarch was deposed and imprisoned.

The Republic: The Convention (1792-1795)

 

The fall of the monarchy was followed by the holding of elections (by universal male suffrage) and the constitution of the National Convention, whose launch coincided with the victory of French troops over the Prussians at Valmy (September 20, 1792). Two days later, on September 22, the National Convention proclaimed the Republic.

 

The struggle for power within the Convention between its left (Jacobins) and right (Girondins) wings reached one of its high points in the trial and execution of Louis XVI (January 21, 1793). In immediate response to the king's beheading, Austria, Prussia, Spain, the Netherlands, and England joined together in the First Coalition, an alliance with no other objective than to militarily end the revolutionary process. Faced with the advance of the First Coalition forces, counterrevolutionary conspiracies by the nobility and clergy, the outbreak of peasant revolt in the Vendée, wheat shortages, and widespread speculation, the moderate policies of the Girondins proved ineffective.

The Jacobins, with the support of the sans-culottes, took the reins of the Convention in June 1793. The French Revolution, closer than ever to the common people, radicalized. Attempts were made to develop the principles of social democracy (popular sovereignty, universal suffrage), reflected in a new constitution, which, however, never came into force.

 

Maximilian Robespierre

 

Dominated by the Jacobins, the Convention conferred exceptional powers on the executive institutions: the Committee of Public Safety decreed emergency measures (massive forced levies and price controls), and the Committee of General Security directed a repression against the enemies of the Revolution, which led to the guillotine of nobles, Girondin leaders, and Queen Marie Antoinette, as well as anyone who tried to evade conscription

. The Terror (1793-1794) had been established, a period dominated by Robespierre. Their drastic measures were effective: French troops halted the armies of the First Coalition, and internal rebellions were suppressed.

 

Once stability was achieved, the moderate bourgeoisie of the Convention considered it unjustified to maintain the state of emergency and, in July 1794, launched the so-called "Thermidor reaction": they withdrew their confidence in Robespierre (who was guillotined) and unleashed a "White Terror" against the leftists. The Convention drafted the Constitution of 1795, the legal framework for the new institutions in the next stage of the Republic, which is designated by the name of its executive branch: the Directory.

 

The Directory (1795-1799)

 

In October 1795, the Convention was dissolved and replaced by two chambers, the Council of Elders and the Council of Five Hundred, elected by census suffrage. Executive power was held by the five members of the Directory, each of whom could be renewed annually. Dominated by the conservative bourgeoisie, the Directory relied on the army to suppress popular revolts when the abolition of price controls made basic goods more expensive again, and also to crush conspiracies and insurrections promoted by both royalists (who aspired to restore monarchical absolutism) and the radical left.

 

While abroad, French generals (among whom the young Napoleon stood out) led successful military campaigns that culminated in the defeat of the First Coalition in 1797, the Directory proved incapable of Maintaining internal stability was not possible, not even within the republican institutions themselves, which were victims of internal struggles between various factions. Census suffrage did not prevent the Jacobin left and the royalists from enjoying considerable representation in the legislature; this threat was compounded, in December 1798, by the formation of a Second European Coalition against revolutionary France.

 

The prevailing anarchy and the weakness of the regime led the bourgeoisie and key leaders to favor a military solution; finally, with the support of one of the directors, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, and other high-ranking officials, Napoleon Bonaparte led the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799). The French Revolution was over: the Directory was replaced by a new authoritarian regime, the Consulate (1799-1804), headed by Napoleon himself as First Consul, invested with broad powers.

Marie Antoinette

Louis 16

 

How to cite this article:

Tomás Fernández and Elena Tamaro. "Stages of the French Revolution [Summary]" [Internet]. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Biografías y Vidas, 2004. Available at https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/historia/revolucion_francesa_resumen.htm [page consulted on July 31, 2025].

With affection,

Ruben