# The Nuttall Encyclopædia/P

P
Pache, Jean, Swiss adventurer, who became Mayor of Paris, and even Minister of War during the French Revolution, “the sleek Tartuffe that he was,” is credited with the authorship of the famous revolutionary motto, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, or Death (1746-1823).
Pachomius, St., an Egyptian hermit, the founder of conventual monachism, who established the first institution of the kind at Tabenna, an island in the Nile; he also established the first nunnery under his sister (292-348). Festival, May 14.
Pachydermata, hoofed animals with thick skins and non-ruminant, such as the elephant and the hog.
Pacific Ocean, the largest sheet of water on the globe, occupies a third of its whole surface, as much as all the land put together. It is a wide oval in shape, lying between Australia and Asia on the W., and North and South America on the E. Except from Asia it receives no large rivers. On its American shores the Gulf of California is the only considerable indentation; the Okhotsk, Japanese, Yellow, and Chinese Seas, on the Asiatic coast, are rather wide bays shut in by islands than inland seas. Its innumerable islands are the chief feature of the Pacific Ocean. The continental islands include the Aleutian, Kurile, Japan, and Philippine Islands, and the archipelago between the Malay Peninsula and Australia; the Oceanic Islands include countless groups, volcanic and coral, chiefly in the southern hemisphere, between the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand. Commerce on the Pacific Ocean is only beginning, but will increase vastly with the extension of the United States westward, the colonisation of Australia, and the opening of Chinese and Japanese ports. San Francisco and Valparaiso on the E., Hong-Kong and Sydney on the W., are just now the chief centres of trade.
Packhard, distinguished American entymologist and naturalist, born in Maine; his classification of insects is accepted; b. 1839.
Pactolus, a small river of Lydia, famous for the gold contained in its sand, due, it was alleged, to Midas washing the gold off him in its waters, and the alleged source of the wealth of Croesus; its modern name is Sarabat. See Midas.
Pacuvius, an old Latin dramatist, nephew of Ennius (q. v.); wrote dramas after the Greek models (220-130 B.C.).
Padang (15), a town and free port on the W. coast of Sumatra, the largest town on the island, and the Dutch official capital.
Paderewski, Ignace Jan, a celebrated pianist, born at Podolia, in Russian Poland; master of his art by incessant practice from early childhood, made his début in 1887 with instant success; his first appearance created quite a furore in Paris and London; has twice visited the United States; is a brilliant composer as well as performer, and has composed numerous pieces both for the voice and the piano; b. 1860.
Padilla, Juan Lopez de, a celebrated Castilian noble, who headed a rebellion against Charles V., which he heroically maintained till his defeat at Villalos in 1521, and which his wife, Donna Maria, no less heroically maintained against a strong besieging force after his capture and execution.
Padishah, from two Persian words meaning “protector prince,” is a title given to the Shah of Persia and the Sultan of Turkey, and at one time applied, among others, to the Emperors of Austria and Russia.
Padua (79), a walled city of Venetia, 23 m. by rail W. of Venice, has some manufactures of leather and musical-instrument strings, but is chiefly interesting for its artistic treasures; these include the municipal buildings, cathedral, and nearly fifty churches, innumerable pictures and frescoes, and Donatello's famous equestrian statue of Gattamelata; there is also a renowned university, library, museum, and the oldest botanical garden in Europe; after very varied fortunes it was held by Venice 1405-1797, then by Austria till its incorporation in Italy 1866. Livy was a native, as also Andrea Mantegna.
Pæstum, an ancient Greek city of Lucania, in South Italy, with remains of Greek architecture second only to those of Athens.
Pagan, Isabel, Scotch poetess, authoress of the plaintive song “Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes” (1740-1821).
Paganini, Nicolo, a celebrated Italian violinist, born at Genoa of humble origin; widely famous for his astonishing feats on a single-stringed instrument; was a composer of musical pieces for both violin and guitar; died rich (1784-1840).
Paganism, heathenism (q. v.), so called as lingering among the “pagani” or country people, after Christianity had taken root in the large towns.
Pagoda, an Indian or Chinese temple, associated chiefly with Buddhism, of a more or less pyramidal form and of several storeys, the most imposing being the Greek Pagoda of Tanjore; the name is applied also to a gold coin worth 7s. 6d. stamped with a pagoda.
Pahlevi, name given to a translation of the Zendavesta (q. v.) in the Zend dialect for the use of the priesthood.
Paine, Thomas, a notorious free-thinker and democrat, born in Thetford; emigrated to America, contributed, as he boasted, by his pamphlet “Common Sense,” to “free America,” by rousing it to emancipate itself from the mother-country; wrote the “Rights of Man” against Burke's “Reflections”; had to emigrate to France; took part in the Revolution to aid in its emancipation also, offended Robespierre, and was put in prison, where he wrote the first part of his “Age of Reason,” a book which offended the Christian world and procured him ignominy and even execration in many quarters; died in New York, but his bones were conveyed to England by Cobbett in 1819 (1737-1809).
Painter, William, author of “Palace of Pleasure,” a collection of tales chiefly from Italian sources, which proved suggestive in furnishing the dramatists with interesting subjects for representation (1540-1594).
Paisiello, Giovanni, an Italian composer, born at Taranto; his great work, the opera “Il Barbiere di Seviglia”; composed besides other operas, cantatas, requiems, &c.
Paisley (66), a Renfrewshire town, 7 m. W. of Glasgow, on the White Cart. It is the chief centre of manufacture of cotton thread in the world, and its other industries include dyeing, bleaching, woollen goods, and engineering. There are several fine buildings, a Baptist Church is said to be the finest modern ecclesiastical building in Scotland. The ornithologist Wilson, Professor Wilson ( Christopher North), and Tannahill were born here.
Palacky, Francis, distinguished Bohemian historian and politician, born in Moravia, author of a “History of Bohemia,” in 5 vols., his chief work and a notable (1798-1876).
Paladin, the name given to the peers of Charlemagne, such as Roland, and also to knights-errant generally.
Palæography, the name given to the study and the deciphering of ancient manuscripts.
Palæologus, the name of a Byzantine family, several members of which attained imperial dignity, the last of the dynasty dying in 1453; they came into prominence in the 11th century.
Palæontology, the name given to the study of fossil remains, a branch of geology.
Palafox, Don Joseph, a Spanish soldier, born of a noble Aragonese family, who immortalised himself by his heroic defence of Saragossa against the French in 1808-9; on the fall of the place was taken to France and imprisoned till 1813; on his release was created Duke of Saragossa and promoted to other high honours at home (1780-1847).
Palais Royal, a pile of buildings in Paris, of which the nucleus was a palace built in 1629 by Lemercier for Richelieu, and known afterwards as the Palais Cardinal, and which at length by gift of Louis XIV. became the town residence of the Orleans family; these buildings suffered much damage in 1848 and in 1871, but have been restored since 1873.
Palamedes, one of the chiefs of the Greeks at the siege of Troy, a man of inventive genius; discovered the assumed madness of Ulysses, but incurred his resentment in consequence, which procured his death.
Palanquin, in India and China a covered conveyance for one person borne on the shoulders of men.
Palatinate, the name of two States, originally one, of the old German empire, one called the Lower Palatinate or the Palatinate of the Rhine, partitioned in 1815 among the States of Baden, Bavaria, Prussia, and Hesse-Darmstadt, and the other called the Upper Palatinate, now nearly all included in Bavaria; the former has for principal towns Spires and Landau, and the latter Ratisbon.
Palatine, one of the seven hills of ancient Rome, and, according to tradition, the first to be occupied, and forming the nucleus of the city; it became one of the most aristocratic quarters of the city, and was chosen by the first emperors for their imperial residence.
Palatine Count, a judicial functionary of high rank under the early Frankish kings over what was called a palatinate.
Palatine Counties, certain frontier counties in England, such as Chester, Durham, and Lancaster, which possess royal privileges and rights.
Pale, The, that part of Ireland in which after the invasion of 1172 the supremacy of English rule and law was acknowledged, the limits of which differed at different times, but which generally included all the eastern counties extending 40 or 50 m. inland.
Palenque, a town in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, discovered in 1760, buried under a dense forest with extensive structures in ruins.
Palermo (273), capital of Sicily, picturesquely situated in the midst of a beautiful and fertile valley called the Golden Shell; is a handsome town, with many public buildings and nearly 300 churches in Moorish and Byzantine architecture, a university, art school, museum, and libraries; industries are unimportant, but a busy trade is done with Britain, France, and the United States, exporting fruits, wine, sulphur, &c., and importing textiles, coals, machinery, and grain.
Pales, in Roman mythology the tutelary deity of shepherds and their flocks, the worship of whom was attended with numerous observances, as in the case of the nature divinities generally.
Palestine, or the Holy Land, a small territory on the SE. corner of the Mediterranean, about the size of Wales, being 140 m. from N. to S., and an average of 70 m. from E. to W., is bounded on the N. by Lebanon, on the E. by the Jordan Valley, on the S. by the Sinaitic Desert, and on the W. by the sea; there is great diversity of climate throughout its extent owing to the great diversity of level, and its flora and fauna are of corresponding range; it suffered much during the wars between the Eastern monarchies and Egypt, and in the wars between the Crescent and the Cross, and is now by a strange fate in the hands of the Turk; it has in recent times been the theatre of extensive exploring operations in the interest of its early history.
Palestrina, an Italian town, 22 m. SE. of Rome, on a slope of the Apennines, 2546 ft. above sea-level, on the site of the ancient Præneste, with the remains of Cyclopean walls, with a palace of the Barberini (q. v.).
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi de, celebrated composer of sacred music, surnamed the Prince of Music, born at Palestrina; resided chiefly at Rome, where he wrought a revolution in church music, produced a number of masses which at once raised him to the foremost rank among composers; was the author of a well-known Stabat Mater (1524-1594).
Paley, Frederick Althorp, classical scholar, grandson of the succeeding, born near York; became a Roman Catholic, contributed to classical literature by his editions of the classics of both Greece and Rome, remarkable alike for their scholarship and the critical acumen they show (1816-1886).
Paley, William, “one of the most masculine and truly English of thinkers and writers,” born at Peterborough; studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was Senior Wrangler, and obtained a Fellowship, held afterwards various Church preferments, and died archdeacon of Carlisle; was a clear writer and cogent reasoner on common-sense lines, and was long famous, if less so now, as the author of “Horæ Paulinæ,” “Evidences of Christianity,” and “Natural Theology,” as well as “Moral and Political Philosophy”; they are genuine products of the time they were written in, but are out of date now (1743-1806).
Palgrave, Sir Francis, historian, born in London, of Jewish parents of the name of Cohen; was called to the bar in 1827, and became Deputy-Keeper of Her Majesty's Records in 1838; was the author of a history of the “Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth” and of a “History of England,” tracing it back chiefly to the Anglo-Norman period, among other works (1788-1861).
Palgrave, Francis Turner, poet, son of preceding, born in London, professor of Poetry at Oxford, editor of “Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” as well as author of lyrics, rhymes, &c.; b. 1824.
Palgrave, William Gifford, Arabic scholar, born at Westminster, brother of preceding; after a brief term of service in the army joined the Society of Jesus, and served as a member of the order in India, Rome, and in Syria, where he acquired an intimate knowledge of Arabic, by means of which he contributed to our knowledge of both the Arabic language and the Arab race; wrote a narrative of a year's journey through Arabia (1826-1888).
Pâli, the sacred language of the Buddhists, once a living language, but, like Sanskrit, no longer spoken.
Palimpsest, the name given to a parchment manuscript written on the top of another that has been erased, yet often not so thoroughly that it cannot be in a measure restored.
Palingenesia, name equivalent to “new birth,” and applied both to regeneration and restoration, of which baptism in the former case is the symbol; in the Stoic philosophy it is preceded by dissolution, as in the rejuvenescence process of Medea (q. v.).
Palinurus, the pilot of one of the ships of Æneas, who, sleeping at his post, fell into the sea, and was drowned.
Palissy, Bernard, the great French potter and inventor of a new process in the potter's art, born in Périgord, of humble parentage; celebrated for his fine earthenware vases ornamented with figures artistically modelled, but above all for his untiring zeal and patience in the study of his art and mastery in it, making fuel of his very furniture and the beams of his house in the conduct of his experiments; he was a Huguenot, but was specially exempted, by order of Catherine de' Medici, from the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1672, although he was in 1585, as a Huguenot, imprisoned in the Bastille, where he died (1510-1590).
Palk's Strait, the channel which separates Ceylon from the mainland of India, 100 m. long and 40 m. wide, generally shallow. See Adam's Bridge.
Palladio, Andrea, an Italian architect, born at Vicenza, of poor parents; was precursor of the modern Italian style of architecture, and author of a treatise on architecture that has borne fruit; his works, which are masterpieces of the Renaissance, consist principally of palaces and churches, and the finest specimens are to be met with in Venice and in his native place (1518-1580).
Palladium, a statue of Pallas in Troy, on the preservation of which depended the safety of the city, and from the date of the abstraction of which by Ulysses and Diomedes the fate of it was doomed; it was fabled to have fallen from heaven upon the plain of Troy, and to have after its abstraction been transferred to Athens and Argos; it is now applied to any safeguard of the liberty of a State.
Palladius, St., is called the “chief apostle of the Scottish nation,” but his connection with Scotland during his lifetime is doubtful; he was sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine in A.D. 430, whence, after his death, his remains were brought by St. Ternan to Fordoun, Kincardineshire.
Pallas, one of the names of Athena (q. v.) considered as the goddess of war; a name of uncertain derivation.
Pallas, Peter Simon, a German traveller and naturalist, born in Berlin, professor of Natural History in St. Petersburg; explored Siberia, and contributed to the geographical knowledge of the Russian empire (1741-1811).
Pallavicino, Ferrante, Italian patriot, who gave offence by his pasquinades to the Papal Court and the Barberini; was betrayed and beheaded (1618-1644).
Pallavicino, Sforza, cardinal and historian, born at Rome; was of the Jesuit order, and wrote a “History of the Council of Trent,” in correction of the work of Paul Sarpi (1607-1667).
Pallice, La, port of La Rochelle, from which it is 3 m. distant, with harbourage for ocean-going steamers.
Palm, Johann Philipp, a Nürnberg bookseller, tried by court-martial at the instance of Napoleon, and shot, for the publication of a pamphlet reflecting on Napoleon and his troops, an act, from the injustice of it, that aroused the indignation of the whole German people against him; “better,” thinks Carlyle, “had he lost his best park of artillery, or his best regiment drowned in the sea, than shot that poor German bookseller” (1768-1806).
Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, is so called from its being commemorative of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem; it is observed by the Greek and Roman Churches; in the latter palm branches are blessed by the priest before mass, carried in procession, distributed to the congregation, carried home by them, and kept throughout the year.
Palma, 1, capital of the Balearic Islands (61), on the Bay of Palma, SW. coast of Majorca; has a Gothic cathedral, a Moorish palace, and a collection of pictures in the old Town Hall; manufactures silks, woollens, and jewellery, and does a busy trade. 2, One of the Canary Islands (39), 67 m. NW. of Teneriffe; grows sugar, and exports honey, wax, and silk manufactures.
Palma, Jacopo, or The Old, a celebrated painter of the Venetian school, was a pupil of Titian; painted sacred subjects and portraits, all much esteemed (1480-1548).
Palma, Jacopo, The Young, nephew of the preceding, also a painter, but of inferior merit, though he aimed to be the rival of Tintoretto and Paul Veronese (1544-1628).
Palmer, the name given to a pilgrim to the Holy Land who had performed his vow, in sign of which he usually bore a palm branch in his hand, which he offered on the altar on his return home.
Palmer, Edward Henry, Oriental scholar, born at Cambridge; had an aptitude for languages, and was especially proficient in those of the East; by his knowledge of Arabic contributed to the success of exploring expeditions to S. Palestine and Sinai; was appointed professor of Arabic at Cambridge in 1871; produced a Persian-English Dictionary, an Arabic Grammar, and a translation of the Korân, and in 1882 undertook two missions to Egypt, in the latter of which he and his party were betrayed and murdered; he was a man of varied gifts and accomplishments, and the loss in scholarship to his country by his fate is incalculable (1840-1882).
Palmer, Samuel, English landscape-painter, chiefly in water-colours (1805-1881).
Palmerston, Henry John Temple, Viscount, English statesman, born, of an Irish family, at Broadlands, Hants; was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge; succeeded to his father's title, an Irish peerage, in 1802, and entered Parliament in 1807 as member for Newport, Isle of Wight; during his long career he subsequently represented Cambridge University (1811-1831), Bletchingly, South Hampshire, and Tiverton; from 1809 to 1828 under five Premiers he was Junior Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary at War; and separating himself finally from the Tory party, he joined Earl Grey's Cabinet as Foreign Secretary in 1830; contrary to all expectation he kept the country out of war, and during the next 11 years he associated England's influence with that of France in Continental affairs; returning to office in 1846, he remained at his old post till 1851, steering England skilfully through the Spanish troubles and the revolutionary reaction of 1848; a vote of censure on his policy was carried in the Lords in 1850, but, after a five hours' speech from him, the Commons recorded their approval; he resigned owing to differences with the Premier, Lord John Russell; in 1852 joined Lord Aberdeen's coalition ministry, and on its fall became himself Prime Minister in 1855; he prosecuted the Crimean War and the Chinese War of 1857, and suppressed the Great Mutiny in India; defeated in 1858, he returned to office next year with a cabinet of Whigs and Peelites; his second administration furthered the cause of free trade, but made the mistake of allowing the Alabama to leave Birkenhead; he was Prime Minister when he died; a brusque, high-spirited, cheery man, sensible and practical, unpretending as an orator, but a skilful debater, he was a great favourite with the country, whose prosperity and prestige it was his chief desire to promote (1784-1865).
Palmistry, the art of reading character from the lines and marks on the palm of the hand, according to which some pretend to read fortunes as well.
Palmy`ra, a ruined city of Asia Minor, 150 m. NE. of Damascus, once situated in an oasis near the Arabian desert; a place of importance, and said to have been founded by Solomon for commercial purposes; of imposing magnificence as it ruins testify, as notably under Zenobia; it was taken by the Romans in 272, and destroyed by Aurelian, after which it gradually fell into utter decay; its ruins were discovered in 1678; it contains the ruins of a temple to Baal, 60 of the 300 columns of which were still standing.
Palo Alto, 33 m. SE. of San Francisco; is the seat of a remarkable university founded by Senator Stanford, and opened in 1891, to provide instruction, from the Kindergarten stage to the most advanced and varied, to students and pupils boarded on the premises; of these there were 1000 in 1897.
Paludan-Müller, Frederick, distinguished Danish poet, born in Fünen; his greatest poem, “Adam Homo,” a didactico-humorous composition; was an earnest man and a finished literary artist (1809-1876).
Pamela, a novel of Richardson's, from the name of the heroine, a girl of low degree, who resists temptation and reclaims her would-be seducer.
Pamirs, The, or the “Roof of the World,” a plateau traversed by mountain ridges and valleys, of the average height of 13,000 ft., NW. of the plateau of Thibet, connecting the mountain system of the Himalayas, Tian-Shan, and the Hindu Kush, and inhabited chiefly by nomad Kirghiz bands; territorial apportionments have for some time past been in the hands of Russian and British diplomatists.
Pampas, vast grassy, treeless, nearly level plains in South America, in the Argentine State; they stretch from the lower Paraná to the S. of Buenos Ayres; afford rich pasture for large herds of wild horses and cattle, and are now in certain parts being brought under tillage.
Pampeluna or Pamplona (31), a fortified city of Northern Spain, is 80 m. due SE. of Bilbao. It has a Gothic cathedral and a surgical college, with manufactures of pottery and leather, and a trade in wine. Formerly capital of Navarre, it has suffered much in war; has this century several times resisted the Carlists.
Pan, in the Greek mythology a goat-man, a personification of rude nature, and the protector of flocks and herds; originally an Arcadian deity, is represented as playing on a flute of reeds joined together of different lengths, called Pan's pipes; and dancing on his cloven hoofs over glades and mountains escorted by a bevy of nymphs side by side, and playing on his pipes. There is a remarkable tradition, that on the night of the Nativity at Bethlehem an astonished voyager heard a voice exclaiming as he passed the promontory of Tarentum, “The great Pan is dead.” The modern devil is invested with some of his attributes, such as cloven hoofs, &c.
Panama (15), a free port in the State of Colombia, on the Pacific coast of the isthmus of the same name, and an oppressively hot and humid place, is the terminus of the Panama railroad and the seat of a great transit trade. It has a Spanish cathedral. The population, of Indian and negro descent chiefly, is only half what it was when the canal works were in full operation.
Panama Canal Geographers were familiar with the idea of connecting the two oceans by a canal through Central America as early as the beginning of the 16th century, and Dutch plans are said to exist dating from the 17th century. The first practical steps were taken by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1879; two years later work was begun; the cost was estimated at £24,000,000, but on January 1, 1889, the company was forced into liquidation after spending over £70,000,000, and accomplishing but a fifth of the work. Extravagance and incapacity were alleged among the causes of failure; but the apparently insurmountable difficulties were marshes, quicksands, and the overflow of the Chagres River, the prevalence of earthquakes, the length of the rainy season, the cost of labour and living, and the extreme unhealthiness of the climate.
Panathenæa, a festival, or rather two festivals, the Lesser and the Greater, anciently celebrated at Athens in honour of Athena, the patron-goddess of the city.
Panchatantra, an old collection of fables and stories originally in Sanskrit, and versions of which have passed into all the languages of India, have appeared in different forms, and been associated with different names.
Pancras, St., a boy martyr of 16, who suffered under the Diocletian persecution about 304, and is variously represented in mediæval legend as bearing a stone and sword, or a palm branch, and trampling a Saracen under foot, in allusion to his hatred of heathenism.
Pandects, the digest of civil law executed at the instance of the Emperor Justinian between the years 530 and 533.
Pandora (i. e. the All-Gifted) in the Greek mythology a woman of surpassing beauty, fashioned by Hephæstos, and endowed with every gift and all graces by Athena, sent by Zeus to Epimetheus (q. v.) to avenge the wrong done to the gods by his brother Prometheus, bearing with her a box full of all forms of evil, which Epimetheus, though cautioned by his brother, pried into when she left, to the escape of the contents all over the earth in winged flight, Hope alone remaining behind in the casket.
Pandours, a name given to a body of light-infantry at one time in the Austrian service, levied among the Slavs on the Turkish frontier, and now incorporated as a division of the regular army.
Pandulf, Cardinal, was the Pope's legate to King John of England, and to whom, on his submission, John paid homage at Dover; d. 1226.
Pange Lingua, a hymn in the Roman Breviary, service of Corpus Christi, part of which is incorporated in every Eucharistic service; was written in rhymed Latin by Thomas Aquinas.
Pánini, a celebrated Sanskrit grammarian, whose work is of standard authority among Hindu scholars, and who lived some time between 600 and 300 B.C.
Panipat (29), a town in the Punjab, 53 m. N. of Delhi; was the scene of two decisive battles, one in 1526 to the establishment of the Mogul dynasty at Delhi, and another in 1701 to the extinction of the Mahratta supremacy in North-West India.
Panizzi, Antonio, principal librarian of the British Museum from 1850 to 1866, born at Modena; took refuge in England in 1821 as implicated in a Piedmontese revolutionary movement that year; procured the favour of Lord Brougham and a post in the Museum, in which he rose to be one of the chiefs (1797-1879).
Pannonia, a province of the Roman empire, conquered between 35 B.C. and A.D. 8; occupied a square with the Danube on the N. and E. and the Save almost on the S. border; it passed to the Eastern Empire in the 5th century, fell under Charlemagne's sway, and was conquered by the modern Hungarians shortly before A.D. 1000.
Panopticon, a prison so arranged that the warder can see every prisoner in charge without being seen by them.
Panslavism, the name given to a movement for union of all the Slavonic races in one nationality, a project which lags heavily owing to the jealousy on the part of one section or another.
Pantagruel, the principal character of one of the two great works of Rabelais, and named after him; he and his father Gargantua figured as two enormous giants, being personifications of royalty with its insatiable lust of territory and power.
Pantheism, the doctrine or creed which affirms the immanency of God in nature, or that God is within nature, but ignores or denies His transcendency, or that He is above nature; distinguished from deism, which denies the former but affirms the latter, from theism, which affirms both, and from atheism, which denies both.
Pantheon, a temple in Rome, first erected by Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, circular in form, 150 ft. in height, with niches all round for statues of the gods, to whom in general it was dedicated; it is now a church, and affords sepulture to illustrious men. Also a building in Paris, originally intended to be a church in honour of the patron saint of Paris, but at the time of the Revolution converted into a receptacle for the ashes of the illustrious dead, Mirabeau being its first occupant, and bearing this inscription, Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissant; it was subsequently appropriated to other uses, but under the third republic it became again a resting-place for the ashes of eminent men.
Pantograph, the name given to a contrivance for copying a drawing or a design on an enlarged or a reduced scale.
Panurge, one of the principal characters in the “Pantagruel” of Rabelais, an exceedingly crafty knave, a libertine, and a coward.
Panza, Sancho, Don Quixote's squire, a squat, paunchy peasant endowed with rude common-sense, but incapable of imagination.
Paoli, Pasquale de, a Corsican patriot; sought to achieve the independence of his country, but was defeated by the Genoese, aided by France, in 1769; took refuge in England, where he was well received and granted a pension; returned to Corsica and became lieutenant-general under the French republic, raised a fresh insurrection, had George III. proclaimed king, but failed to receive the viceroyalty, and returned to England, where he died a disappointed man (1726-1807).
Papal States, a territory in the N. of Italy extending irregularly from Naples to the Po, at one time subject to the temporal sovereignty of the Pope, originating in a gift to his Holiness of Pepin the Short, and taking shape as such about the 11th century, till in the 16th and 17th centuries the papal power began to assert itself in the general politics of Europe, and after being suppressed for a time by Napoleon it was formally abolished by annexation of the territory to the crown of Sardinia in 1870.
Paphos, the name of two ancient cities in the SW. of Cyprus; the older (now Kyklia) was a Phoenician settlement, in which afterwards stood a temple of Venus, who was fabled to have sprung from the sea-foam close by; the other, 8 m. westward, was the scene of Paul's interview with Sergius Paulus and encounter with Elymas.
Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, who flourished in the middle of the 2nd century, and wrote a book entitled “Exposition of the Lord's Sayings,” fragments of which have been preserved by Eusebius and others; he was, it is said, the companion of Polycarp.
Papier-Mâche is a light, durable substance made from paper pulp or sheets of paper pasted together and variously treated with chemicals, heat, and pressure, largely used for ornamental trays, boxes, light furniture, &c., in which it is varnished and decorated to resemble lacquer-work, and for architectural decoration, in which it is made to imitate plaster moulding; the manufacture was learned from the Eastern nations. Persia, India, and Japan having been long familiar with it; America has adapted it to use for railroad wheels, &c.
Papin, Denis, French physicist, born at Blois, practised medicine at Angers; came to England and assisted Boyle in his experiments, made a special study of the expansive power of steam and its motive power, invented a steam-digester with a safety-valve, since called after him, for cooking purposes at a high temperature; became professor of Mathematics at Marburg (1647-1712).
Papinianus, Æmilius, a celebrated Roman jurist; was put to death by Caracalla for refusing, it is said, when requested, to vindicate his conduct in murdering his brother (142-212).
Papirius, a Roman pontiff to whom is ascribed a collection of laws constituting the Roman code under the kings.
Pappenheim, Count von, imperial general, born in Bavaria; played a prominent part in the Thirty Years' War; was distinguished for his zeal as well as his successes on the Catholic side; was mortally wounded at Lützen, expressed his gratitude to God when he learned that Gustavas Adolphus, who fell in the same battle, had died before him (1594-1632).
Pappus of Alexandria, a Greek geometer of the third or fourth century, author of “Mathematical Collections,” in eight books, of which the first and second have been lost.
Papuans, the name of the members of the negro race inhabiting certain islands of Oceania, including New Guinea, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Fiji Islands, &c.
Papy`rus, the Greek name of the Egyptian papu, is a kind of sedge growing 10 ft. high, with a soft triangular stem, the pith of which is easily split into ribbons, found still in Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, &c.; the pith ribbons were the paper of the ancient Egyptians, of the Greeks after Alexander, and of the later Romans; they were used by the Arabs of the 8th century, and in Europe till the 12th; at first long strips were rolled up, but later rectangular pages were cut and bound together book fashion; though age has rendered the soft white pages brown and brittle, much ancient literature is still preserved on papyrus; the use of papyrus was superseded by that of parchment and rag-made paper.
Pará (40), a Brazilian port at the mouth of the Guama, on the E. shore of the Pará estuary, is a compact, regularly-built, thriving town, with whitewashed buildings, blue and white tiled roofs, tree-shaded streets, tram-cars, telephones, theatre, and cathedral; it is the emporium of the Amazon trade, exporting india-rubber and cacao, and sending foreign goods into the interior; though hot, it is healthy.
Parable, a short allegorical narrative intended to illustrate and convey some spiritual instruction.
Parabola, a conic section formed by the intersection of a cone by a plane parallel to one of its sides.
Paracelsus, a Swiss physician, alchemist, and mystic, whose real name was Theophrastus Bombastus, born at Einsiedeln, in Schwyz; was a violent revolutionary in the medical art, and provoked much hostility, so that he was driven to lead a wandering and unsettled life; notwithstanding, he contributed not a little, by his knowledge and practice, to inaugurate a more scientific study of nature than till his time prevailed (1493-1541).
Paraffin, name given by Baron Reichenbach to a transparent crystalline substance obtained by distillation from wood, bituminous coal, shale, &c., and so called because it resists the action of the strongest acids and alkalies.
Paraguay (400), except Uruguay the smallest State in South America, is an inland Republic whose territories lie in the fork between the Pilcomayo and Paraguay and the Paraná Rivers, with Argentina on the W. and S., Bolivia on the N., and Brazil on the N. and E.; it is less than half the size of Spain, consists of rich undulating plains, and, in the S., of some of the most fertile land on the continent; the climate is temperate for the latitude; the population, Spanish, Indian, and half-caste, is Roman Catholic; education is free and compulsory; the country is rich in natural products, but without minerals; timber, dye-woods, rubber, Paraguay tea (a kind of holly), gums, fruits, wax, honey, cochineal, and many medicinal herbs are gathered for export; maize, rice, cotton, and tobacco are cultivated; the industries include some tanning, brick-works, and lace-making; founded by Spain in 1535, Paraguay was the scene of an interesting experiment in the 17th century, when the country was governed wholly by the Jesuits, who, excluding all European settlers, built up a fabric of Christian civilisation; they were expelled in 1768; in 1810 the country joined the revolt against Spain, and was the first to establish its independence; for 26 years it was under the government of Dr. Francia; from 1865 to 1870 it maintained a heroic but disastrous war against the Argentine, Brazil, and Uruguay, as a consequence of which the population fell from a million and a half to a quarter of a million; it is again prosperous and progressing. The capital is Asunçion (18), at the confluence of the Pilcomayo and Paraguay.
Paraguay River, a South American river 1800 m. long, the chief tributary of the Paraná, rises in some lakes near Matto Grosso, Brazil, and flows southward through marshy country till it forms the boundary between Brazil and Bolivia, then traversing Paraguay, it becomes the boundary between that State and the Argentine Republic, and finally enters the Paraná above Corrientes; it receives many affluents, and is navigable by ocean steamers almost to its source.
Paraklete, the Holy Spirit which Christ promised to His disciples would take His place as their teacher and guide after He left them. Also the name of the monastery founded by Abelard near Nogent-sur-Seine, and of which Heloïse (q. v.) was abbess.
Parallax, an astronomical term to denote an apparent change in the position of a heavenly body due to a change in the position or assumed position of the observer.
Paramar`ibo (24), the capital of Dutch Guiana, on the Surinam, 10 m. from the sea, and the centre of the trade of the colony.
Paramo, the name given to an elevated track of desert on the Andes.
Paraná River, a great river of South America, formed by the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Paranahyba, in SE. Brazil, flows SW. through Brazil and round the SE. border of Paraguay, then receiving the Paraguay River, turns S. through the Argentine, then E. till the junction of the Uruguay forms the estuary of the Plate. The river is broad and rapid, 2000 m. long, more than half of it navigable from the sea; at the confluence of the Yguassu it enters a narrow gorge, and for 100 m. forms one of the most remarkable rapids in the world; the chief towns on its banks are in the Argentine, viz. Corrientes, Santa Fé, and Rosario.
Parcæ, the Roman name of the Three Fates (q. v.), derived from “pars,” a part, as apportioning to every individual his destiny.
Parchment consists of skins specially prepared for writing on, and is so called from a king of Pergamos, who introduced it when the export of papyrus from Egypt was stopped; the skins used are of sheep, for fine parchment or vellum, of calves, goats, and lambs; parchment for drumheads is made from calves' and asses' skins.
Parcs-aux-Cerfs, the French name for clearings to provide hunting fields for the French aristocracy prior to the Revolution.
Paré, Ambroise, great French surgeon, born at Laval; was from the improved methods he introduced in the treatment of surgical cases entitled to be called, as he has been, the father of modern surgery, for his success as an operator, in particular the tying of divided arteries and the treatment of gunshot wounds; he was in the habit of saying of any patient he had successfully operated upon, “I cared for him; God healed him”; his writings exercised a beneficent influence on the treatment of surgical cases in all lands (1517-1590).
Pariah, a Hindu of the lowest class, and of no caste; of the class they are of various grades, but all are outcast, and treated as such.
Paris (2,448), the capital of France, in the centre of the northern half of the country, on both banks of the Seine, and on two islands (La Cité and St. Louis) in the middle, 110 m. from the sea; is the largest city on the Continent, and one of the most beautiful in the world. No city has finer or gayer streets, or so many noble buildings. The Hôtel de Cluny and the Hôtel de Sens are rare specimens of 15th-century civic architecture. The Palace of the Tuileries, on the right bank of the Seine, dates from the 16th century, and was the royal residence till the Revolution. Connected with it is the Louvre, a series of galleries of painting, sculpture, and antiquities, whose contents form one of the richest collections existing, and include the peerless “Venus de Milo.” The Palais Royal encloses a large public garden, and consists of shops, restaurants, the Théâtre Français, and the Royal Palace of the Orleans family. South of the river is the Luxembourg, where the Senate meets, and on the Ile de la Cité stands the Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie, one of the oldest Paris prisons. St.-Germain-des-Prés is the most ancient church, but the most important is the cathedral of Notre Dame, 12th century, which might tell the whole history of France could it speak. Saint-Chapelle is said to be the finest Gothic masterpiece extant. The Pantheon, originally meant for a church, is the burial-place of the great men of the country, where lie the remains of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Carnot. The oldest hospitals are the Hôtel Dieu, La Charité, and La Pitié. The University Schools in the Quartier Latin attract the youth of all France; the chief are the Schools of Medicine and Law, the Scotch College, the College of France, and the Sorbonne, the seat of the faculties of letters, science, and Protestant theology. Triumphal arches are prominent in the city. There are many museums and charitable institutions; the Bibliothèque Nationale, in the Rue Richelieu, rivals the British Museum in numbers of books and manuscripts. The Palace of Industry and the Eiffel Tower commemorate the exhibitions of 1854 and 1889 respectively. Great market-places stand in various parts of the city. The Rue de Rivoli, Rue de la Paix, Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré, and the Rue Royale are among the chief streets; beautiful squares are numerous, the most noted being the Place de la Concorde, between the Champs Elysées and the Gardens of the Tuileries, in the centre of which the Obelisk of Luxor stands on the site of the guillotine at which Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, Philippe Egalité, Danton, and Robespierre died. Boulevards lined with trees run to the outskirts of the city. The many roads, railways, canals, and rivers which converge on Paris have made it the most important trading centre in France, and the concourse of wealthy men of all nations has given it a high place in the financial world. It is a manufacturing city, producing jewellery, ornamental furniture, and all sorts of artistic “articles de Paris.” The centre of French, and indeed European, fashion, it is noted for its pleasure and gaiety. The concentration of Government makes it the abode of countless officials. It is strongly fortified, being surrounded by a ring of forts, and a wall 22 m. long, at the 56 gates of which the octroi dues are levied. The Préfect of the Seine, appointed by the Government, and advised by a large council, is the head of the municipality, of the police and fire brigades, cleansing, draining, and water-supply departments. The history of Paris is the history of France, for the national life has been, and is, in an extraordinary degree centred in the capital. It was the scene of the great tragic drama of the Revolution, and of the minor struggles of 1830 and 1849. In recent times its great humiliation was its siege and capture by the Germans in 1870-71.
Paris, the second son of Priam and Hecuba; was exposed on Mount Ida at his birth; brought up by a shepherd; distinguished himself by his prowess, by which his parentage was revealed; married Oenonë (q. v.); appealed to to decide to whom the “apple of discord” belonged, gave it to Aphrodité in preference to her two rivals Hera and Athena; was promised in return that he should receive the most beautiful woman in the world to wife, Helen of Sparta, whom he carried off to Greece, and which led to the Trojan War (q. v.); slew Achilles, and was mortally wounded by the poisoned arrows of Hercules.
Paris, Matthew, English chronicler; a Benedictine monk of St. Albans; author of “Chronica Majora,” which contains a history written in Latin of England from the Conquest to the year in which he died (1195-1259).
Park, Mungo, African traveller, born at Foulshiels, near Selkirk; was apprenticed to a surgeon, and studied medicine at Edinburgh; 1791-93 he spent in a voyage to Sumatra, and in 1795 went for the first time to Africa under the auspices of the African Association of London; starting from the Gambia he penetrated eastward to the Niger, then westward to Kamalia, where illness seized him; conveyed to his starting-point by a slave-trader, he returned to England and published “Travels in the Interior of Africa,” 1799; he married and settled to practice at Peebles, but he was not happy till in 1805 he set out for Africa again at Government expense; starting from Pisania he reached the Niger, and sending back his journals attempted to descend the river in a canoe, but, attacked by natives, the canoe overturned; and he and his companions were drowned (1771-1805).
Parker, John Henry, archæologist and writer on architecture; originally a London publisher, his chief work the “Archæology of Rome,” in nine vols., a subject to which he devoted much study (1800-1884).
Parker, Joseph, an eminent Nonconformist divine, born in Hexham; minister of the City Temple; a vigorous and popular preacher, and the author of numerous works bearing upon biblical theology and the defence of it; his magnum opus is the “People's Bible,” of which 25 vols. are already complete; b. 1830.
Parker, Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Norwich; was a Fellow of Cambridge; embraced the Protestant doctrines; became Master of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; was chaplain to Anne Boleyn, and made Dean of Ely by Edward VI.; was deprived of his offices under Mary, but made Primate under Elizabeth, and the Bishop's Bible was translated and issued under his auspices (1504-1575).
Parker, Theodore, an American preacher and lecturer; adopted and professed the Unitarian creed, but discarded it, like Emerson, for a still more liberal; distinguished himself in the propagation of it by his lectures as well as his writings; was a vigorous anti-slavery agitator, and in general a champion of freedom; died at Florence while on a tour for his health (1810-1860).
Parkman, Francis, American historian, born in Boston; his writings valuable, particularly in their bearing on the dominion of the French in America, its rise, decline, and fall (1823-1893).
Parlement, the name given to the local courts of justice in France prior to the Revolution, in which the edicts of the king required to be registered before they became laws; given by pre-eminence to the one in Paris, composed of lawyers, or gentlemen of the long robe, as they were called, whose action the rest uniformly endorsed, and which played an important part on the eve of the Revolution, and contributed to further the outbreak of it, to its own dissolution in the end.
Parliament is the name of the great legislative council of Britain representing the three estates of the realm—Clergy, Lords, and Commons. The Clergy are represented in the Upper House by the archbishops and bishops of sees founded prior to 1846, in number 26; the rest of the Upper House comprises the dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons of the peerage of Great Britain who sit in virtue of their titles, and representatives of the Scotch and Irish peerages elected for life; the total membership is over 550; the House of Lords may initiate any bill not a money bill, it does not deal with financial measures at all except to give its formal assent; it also revises bills passed by the Commons, and may reject these. Of late years this veto has come to be exercised only in cases where it seems likely that the Commons do not retain the confidence of the people, having thus the effect of referring the question for the decision of the constituencies. The Lords constitute the final court of appeal in all legal questions, but in exercising this function only those who hold or have held high judicial office take part. The House of Commons comprises 670 representatives of the people; its members represent counties, divisions of counties, burghs, wards of burghs, and universities, and are elected by owners of land and by occupiers of land or buildings of £10 annual rental who are commoners, males, of age, and not disqualified by unsoundness of mind, conviction for crime, or receipt of parochial relief. The Commons initiates most of the legislation, deals with bills already initiated and passed by the Lords, inquires into all matters of public concern, discusses and determines imperial questions, and exercises the sole right to vote supplies of money. To become law bills must pass the successive stages of first and second reading, committee, and third reading in both Houses, and receive the assent of the sovereign, which has not been refused for nearly two centuries.
Parliament, The Long, the name given to the last English Parliament convoked by Charles I. in 1640, dissolved by Cromwell in 1653, and recalled twice after the death of the Protector before it finally gave up the ghost.
Parliament of Dunces, name given to a parliament held at Coventry by Henry IV. in 1494, because no lawyer was allowed to sit in it.
Parliamentarian, one who, in the English Civil War, supported the cause of the Parliament against the king.
Parma (44), a cathedral and university town in N. Italy, on the Parma, a tributary of the Po, 70 m. NE. of Genoa; is rich in art treasures, has a school of music, picture-gallery, and museum of antiquities; it manufactures pianofortes, silks, and woollens, and has a cattle and grain market; Parma was formerly the capital of the duchy of that name; it was the residence of Correggio as well as the birthplace of Parmigiano.
Parmenion, an able and much-esteemed Macedonian general, distinguished as second in command at Granicus, Issus, and Arbela, but whom Alexander in some fit of jealousy and under unfounded suspicion caused to be assassinated in Media.
Parmenides, a distinguished Greek philosopher of the Eleatic school, who flourished in the 5th century B.C.; his system was developed by him in the form of an epic poem, in which he demonstrates the existence of an Absolute which is unthinkable, because it is without limits, and which he identifies with thought, as the one in the many.
Parmigiano, a Lombard painter whose proper name was Girolamo Mazzola, born at Parma; went to Rome when 19 and obtained the patronage of Clement VII.; after the storming of the city in 1527, during which he sat at work in his studio, he went to Bologna, and four years later returned to his native city; failing to implement a contract to paint frescoes he was imprisoned, and on his release retired to Casalmaggiore, where he died; in style he followed Correggio, and is best known by his “Cupid shaping a Bow” (1504-1540).
Parnassus, a mountain in Phocis, 10 m. N. of the Gulf of Corinth, 8000 ft. high, one of the chief seats of Apollo and the Muses, and an inspiring source of poetry and song, with the oracle of Delphi and the Castalian spring on its slopes; it was conceived of by the Greeks as in the centre of the earth.
Parnell, Charles Stuart, Irish Home-Ruler, born at Avondale, in Wicklow; was practically the dictator of his party for a time and carried matters with a high hand, but at the height of his popularity he suffered a fall, and his death, which was sudden, happened soon after (1846-1891).
Parnell, Thomas, English minor poet of the Queen Anne period, born in Dublin, of a Cheshire family; studied at Trinity College, took orders, and became archdeacon of Clogher; is best known as the author of “The Hermit,” though his odes “The Night-Piece on Death” and the “Hymn to Contentment” are of more poetic worth; he was the friend of Swift and Pope, and a member of the Scriblerus Club (1679-1718).
Paros (7), one of the Cyclades, lying between Naxos and Siphanto, exports wine, figs, and wool; in a quarry near the summit of Mount St. Elias the famous Parian marble is still cut; the capital is Paroekia (2).
Parr, Catherine, sixth wife of Henry VIII., daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal, was a woman of learning and great discretion, acquired great power over the king, persuaded him to consent to the succession of his daughters, and surviving him, married her former suitor Sir Thomas Seymour, and died from the effects of childbirth the year after (1512-1548).
Parr, Samuel, a famous classical scholar, born at Harrow; became head-master of first Colchester and then Norwich Grammar-School and a prebend of St. Paul's; he had an extraordinary memory and was a great talker; he was a good Latinist, but nothing he has left justifies the high repute in which he was held by his contemporaries (1747-1825).
Parr, Thomas, called Old Parr, a man notable for his long life, being said to have lived 152 years and 9 months, from 1483 to 1635.
Parramatta (12), next to Sydney, from which it is 14 m. W., the oldest town in New South Wales; manufactures colonial tweeds and Parramatta cloths, and is in the centre of orange groves and fruit gardens.
Parrhasius, a gifted painter of ancient Greece, born at Ephesus; came to Athens and became the rival of Zeuxis; he was the contemporary of Socrates and a man of an arrogant temper; his works were characterised by the pains bestowed on them.
Parry, Sir William Edward, celebrated Arctic explorer, born at Bath; visited the Arctic Seas under Ross in 1818, conducted a second expedition himself in 1819-20, a third in 1821-23, a fourth in 1824-26 with unequal success, and a fifth in 1827 in quest of the North Pole viâ Spitzbergen, in which he was baffled by an adverse current; received sundry honours for his achievements; died governor of Greenwich Hospital, and left several accounts of his voyages (1790-1855).
Parsees (i. e. inhabitants of Pars or Persia), a name given to the disciples of Zoroaster or their descendants in Persia and India, and sometimes called Guebres; in India they number some 90,000, are to be found chiefly in the Bombay Presidency, form a wealthy community, and are engaged mostly in commerce; in religion they incline to deism, and pay homage to the sun as the symbol of the deity; they neither bury their dead nor burn them, but expose them apart in the open air, where they are left till the flesh is eaten away and only the bones remain, to be removed afterwards for consignment to a subterranean cavern.
Parsifal, the hero of the legend of the Holy Grail (q. v.), and identified with Galahad (q. v.) in the Arthurian legend.
Parson Adams, a simple-minded 18th-century clergyman in Fielding's “Joseph Andrews.”
Parsons, Robert, English Jesuit, born in Somersetshire, educated at Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College; he became a convert to Roman Catholicism and entered the Society of Jesus in 1575; conceived the idea of reclaiming England from her Protestant apostasy, and embarked on the enterprise in 1580, but found it too hot for him, and had to escape to the Continent; after this he busied himself partly in intrigues to force England into submission and partly in organising seminaries abroad for English Roman Catholics, and became head of one at Rome, where he died; he appears to have been a Jesuit to the backbone, and to have served the cause of Jesuitry with his whole soul (1546-1610).
Parthenogenesis, name given to asexual reproduction, that is, to reproduction of plants or animals by means of unimpregnated germs or ova.
Parthenon, a celebrated temple of the Doric order at Athens, dedicated to Athena, and constructed under Phidias of the marble of Pentelicus, and regarded as the finest specimen of Greek architecture that exists; it is 228 ft. in length and 64 ft. in height. Parthenon means the chamber of the maiden goddess, that is, Athena.
Parthenope, in the Greek mythology one of the three Sirens (q. v.), threw herself into the sea because her love for Ulysses was not returned, and was drowned; her body was washed ashore at Naples, which was called Parthenope after her name.
Parthia, an ancient country corresponding to Northern Persia; was inhabited by a people of Scythian origin, who adopted the Aryan speech and manners, and subsequently yielded much to Greek influence; after being tributary successively to Assyria, Media, Persia, Alexander the Great, and Syria, they set up an independent kingdom in 250 B.C. In two great contests with Rome they made the empire respect their prowess; between 53 and 36 B.C. they defeated Crassus in Mesopotamia, conquered Syria and Palestine, and inflicted disaster on Mark Antony in Armenia; the renewal of hostilities by Trajan in A.D. 115 brought more varied fortunes, but they extorted a tribute of 50,000,000 denarii from the Emperor Macrinus in 218. Ctesiphon was their capital; the Euphrates lay between them and Rome; they were over thrown by Ardashir of Persia in 224. The Parthians were famous horse-archers, and in retreat shot their arrows backwards often with deadly effect on a pursuing enemy.
Partick (36), a western suburb of Glasgow, has numerous villas, and its working population is very largely engaged in shipbuilding.
Partington, Mrs., an imaginary lady, the creation of the American humorist Shillaber, distinguished for her misuse of learned words; also another celebrity who attempted to sweep back the Atlantic with her mop, the type of those who think to stave back the inevitable.
Pascal, Blaise, illustrious French thinker and writer, born at Clermont, in Auvergne; was distinguished at once as a mathematician, a physicist, and a philosopher; at 16 wrote a treatise on conic sections, which astonished Descartes; at 18 invented a calculating machine; he afterwards made experiments in pneumatics and hydrostatics, by which his name became associated with those of Torricelli and Boyle; an accident which befell him turned his thoughts to religious subjects, and in 1654 he retired to the convent of Port Royal (q. v.), where he spent as an ascetic the rest of his days, and wrote his celebrated “Provincial Letters” in defence of the Jansenists against the Jesuits, and his no less famous “Pensées,” which were published after his death; “his great weapon in polemics,” says Prof. Saintsbury, “is polite irony, which he first brought to perfection, and in the use of which he has hardly been equalled, and has certainly not been surpassed since” (1623-1662).
Pas-de-Calais, the French name for the Strait of Dover; also the name of the adjacent department of France.
Pasha, a Turkish title, originally bestowed on princes of the blood, but now extended to governors of provinces and prominent officers in the army and navy.
Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos (q. v.) and mother of the Minotaur (q. v.).
Paskievitch, a Russian general, born at Poltava; took part in repelling the French in 1812, defeated the Persians in 1826-27 and the Turks in 1828-29; suppressed a Polish insurrection in 1831 and a Magyar revolution in 1849; was wounded at Silistria in 1854 and resigned (1782-1856).
Pasquino, a cobbler or tailor who lived in Rome at the end of the 15th century, notable for his witty and sarcastic sayings, near whose shop after his death a fragment of a statue was dug up and named after him, on which, as representing him, the Roman populace claim to this day, it would seem, the privilege of placarding jibes against particularly the ecclesiastical authorities of the place, hence Pasquinade.
Passau (17), a Bavarian fortified town, situated at the confluence of the Inn and the Danube, 105 m. E. of Münich by rail; is a picturesque place, strategically important, with manufactures of leather, porcelain, and parquet, and trade in salt and corn.
Passing-bell, a bell tolled at the moment of the death of a person to invite his neighbours to pray for the safe passing of his soul.
Passion Play, a dramatic representation of the several stages in the passion of Christ.
Passion Sunday, the fifth Sunday in Lent, which is succeeded by what is called the Passion Week.
Passion Week is properly the week preceding Holy Week, but in common English usage the name is given to Holy Week itself, i. e. to the week immediately preceding Easter, commemorating Christ's passion.
Passionists, an order of priests, called of the Holy Cross, founded in 1694 by Paul Francisco, of the Cross in Sardinia, whose mission it is to preach the Passion of Christ and bear witness to its spirit and import, and who have recently established themselves in England and America; they are noted for their austerity.
Passover, the chief festival of the Jews in commemoration of the passing of the destroying angel over the houses of the Israelites on the night when he slew the first-born of the Egyptians; it was celebrated in April, lasted eight days, only unleavened bread was used in its observance, and a lamb roasted whole was eaten with bitter herbs, the partakers standing and road-ready as on their departure from the land of bondage.
Passow, Franz, German philologist, born in Mecklenburg, professor at Breslau; his chief work “Hand-Wörterbuch der Griechischen Sprache”; an authority in subsequent Greek lexicography (1786-1833).
Pasta, Judith, a famous Italian operatic singer, born near Milan, of Jewish birth; her celebrity lasted from 1822 to 1835, after which she retired into private life; she had a voice of great compass (1798-1865).
Pasteur, Louis, an eminent French chemist, born at Dôle, in dep. of Jura, celebrated for his studies and discoveries in fermentation, and also for his researches in hydrophobia and his suggestion of inoculation as a cure; the Pasteur Institute in Paris was the scene of his researches from 1886 (1822-1895).
Paston Letters, a series of letters and papers, over a thousand in number, belonging to a Norfolk family of the name, and published by Sir John Fenn over a century ago, dating from the reign of Henry V. to the close of the reign of Henry VII.; of importance in connection with the political and social history of the period.
Pastoral Staff, a bishop's staff with a crooked head, symbolical of his authority and function as a shepherd in spiritual matters of the souls in his diocese.
Patagonia is the territory at the extreme S. of South America, lying between the Rio Colorado and the Strait of Magellan. Chilian Patagonia is a narrow strip W. of the Andes, with a broken coast-line, many rocky islands and peninsulas. Its climate is temperate but very rainy, and much of it is covered with dense forests which yield valuable timber; coal is found at Punta Arenas on the Strait. The population (3) consists chiefly of migratory Araucanian Indians and the Chilian settlers at Punta Arenas. Eastern or Argentine Patagonia is an extensive stretch of undulating plateaux intersected by ravines, swept by cold W. winds, and rainless for eight months of the year. The base of the Andes is fertile and forest-clad, the river valleys can be cultivated, but most of the plains are covered with coarse grass or sparse scrub, and there are some utterly desolate regions. Lagoons abound, and there are many rivers running eastward from the Andes. Herds of horses and cattle are bred on the pampas. The Indians of this region (7) are among the tallest races of the world. There are 2000 settlers at Patagones on the Rio Negro, and a Welsh colony on the Chubut.
Patanjali is the name of two ancient Indian authors, of whom one is the author of the “Yoga,” a theistic system of philosophy, and the other of a criticism on the Sanskrit grammarian Pánini.
Patchouli, a perfume with a strong odour, derived from the dried roots of an Indian plant introduced into the country in 1844.
Pater, Walter Horatio, an English prose-writer, specially studious of word, phrase, and style, born in London; studied at Oxford, and became a Fellow of Brasenose College; lived chiefly in London; wrote studies in the “History of the Renaissance,” “Marcus the Epicurean,” “Imaginary Portraits,” “Appreciations,” along with an essay on “Style”; literary criticism was his forte (1839-1894).
Paterculus, Marcus Velleius, a Latin historian of the 1st century, author of an epitome, especially of Roman history, rather disfigured by undue flattery of Tiberius his patron, as well as of Cæsar and Augustus.
Paterson, Robert, the original of Scott's “Old Mortality,” a stone-mason, born near Hawick; devoted 40 years of his life to restoring and erecting monumental stones to the memory of the Scotch Covenanters (1712-1801).
Paterson, William, a famous financier, born in Tinwald parish, Dumfriesshire; originated the Bank of England, projected the ill-fated Darien scheme, and lost all in the venture, though he recovered compensation afterwards, an indemnity for his losses of £18,000; he was a long-headed Scot, skilful in finance and in matters of trade (1658-1719).
Pathos, the name given to an expression of deep feeling, and calculated to excite similar feelings in others.
Patlock, Robert, English novelist, author of “Peter Wilkins,” an exquisite production; the heroine, the flying girl Youwarkee (1697-1767).
Patmore, Coventry, English poet, born in Essex, best known as the author of “The Angel in the House,” a poem in praise of domestic bliss, succeeded by others, superior in some respects, of which “The Unknown Eros” is by many much admired; he was a Roman Catholic by religious profession (1823-1896).
Patmos, a barren rocky island in the Ægean Sea, S. of Samos, 28 m. in circuit, where St. John suffered exile, and where it is said he wrote the Apocalypse.
Patna (165), the seventh city of India, in Bengal, at the junction of the Son, the Gandak, and the Ganges; is admirably situated for commerce; has excellent railway communication, and trades largely in cotton, oil-seeds, and salt. It is a poor city with narrow streets, and except the Government buildings, Patna College, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a mosque, has scarcely any good buildings. At Dinapur, its military station, 6 m. to the W., mutiny broke out in 1857. It is famous for its rice, but this is largely a re-export.
Patois, a name the French give to a corrupt dialect of a language spoken in a remote province of a country.
Paton, John Gibson, missionary to the New Hebrides, son of a stocking-weaver of Kirkmahoe, Dumfriesshire; after some work in Glasgow City Mission was ordained by the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and laboured in Tanna and Aniwa for twenty-five years; his account of his work was published in 1890; b. 1824.
Paton Sir Joseph Noel, poet and painter, born at Dunfermline; became a pattern designer, but afterwards studied in Edinburgh and London, and devoted himself to art; his early subjects were mythical and legendary, later they have been chiefly religious; he was appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland in 1865, knighted in 1867, and in 1876 received his LL.D. from Edinburgh University; his “Quarrel” and “Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania” are in the National Gallery, Edinburgh; the illustrations of the “Dowie Dens o' Yarrow,” and the series of religious allegories, “Pursuit of Pleasure,” “Lux in Tenebris,” “Faith and Reason,” &c., are familiar through the engravings; “Poems by a Painter” appeared in 1861; b. 1821.
Patras (37), on the NW. corner of the Morean Peninsula, on the shores of the Gulf of Patras; has a fine harbour; is the chief western port of Greece, shipping currants, olive-oil, and wine, and importing textiles, machinery, and coal; it is a handsome city, in the present century rebuilt and fortified.
Patriarch, in Church history is the name given originally to the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, and later to those also of Constantinople and Jerusalem, who held a higher rank than other bishops, and exercised a certain authority over the bishops in their districts. The title is in vogue in the Greek, Syrian, Armenian, and other Churches. It was originally given to the chief of a race or clan, the members of which were called after him.
Patricians and Plebeians, the two classes into which, from the earliest times, the population of the Roman State was divided, the former of which possessed rights and privileges not conceded to the latter, and stood to them as patrons to clients, like the baron of the Middle Ages to the vassals. This inequality gave rise to repeated and often protracted struggles in the commonalty, during which the latter gradually encroached on the rights of the former till the barrier in civic status, and even in social to some extent, was as good as abolished, and members of the plebeian class were eligible to the highest offices and dignities of the State.
Patrick, Order of St., an Irish order of knighthood, founded in 1783 by George III., comprising the sovereign, the Lord-Lieutenant, and twenty-two knights, and indicated by the initial letters K.P.
Patrick, St., the apostle and patron saint of Ireland; his birthplace uncertain; flourished in the 5th century; his mission, which extended over great part of Ireland, and over thirty or forty years of time, was eminently successful, and at the end of it he was buried in Downpatrick, henceforth a spot regarded as a sacred one. Various miracles are ascribed to him, and among the number the extirpation from the soil of all venomous reptiles.
Patrick, Simon, English prelate; distinguished himself, when he was rector of St. Paul's, by his self-denying devotion during the Plague of London; became bishop in succession of Chichester and Ely, and was the author of a number of expository works (1652-1707).
Patristic Literature, the name given to the writings of the early Fathers of the Christian Church.
Patroclus, a friend of Achilles, who accompanied him to the Trojan War, and whose death by the hand of Hector roused Achilles out of his sullenness, and provoked him to avenge the deed in the death of Hector.
Patteson, John Coleridge, bishop of Melanesia, grand-nephew of Coleridge; a devoted bishop, in material things no less than spiritual, among the Melanesian islanders; was murdered, presumably through mistake, by the natives of one of the Santa Cruz groups (1827-1871).
Patti, Adelina, prima donna, born in Madrid, of Italian extraction; made her first appearance at New York in 1859, and in London at Covent Garden, as Amina in “La Somnambula,” in 1861, and has since made the round once and again of the Continent and America, North and South; has been married three times, being divorced by her first husband, and lives at Craig-y-nos Castle, near Swansea, Wales; b. 1843.
Pattison, Mark, a distinguished English scholar, born at Hornby, Yorkshire; studied at Oxford, and was for a time carried away with the Tractarian Movement, but when his interest in it died out he gave himself to literature and philosophy; wrote in the famous “Essays and Reviews” a paper on “The Tendency of Religious Thought in England”; became rector of Lincoln College, Oxford; wrote his chief literary work, a “Life of Isaac Casaubon,” a mere fragment of what it lay in him to do, and left an autobiography, which revealed a wounded spirit which no vulnerary known to him provided by the pharmacopoeia of earth or heaven could heal (1813-1889).
Pattison's Process, the name of a process for desilverising lead, dependent on the fact that lead which has least silver in it solidifies first on liquefaction.
Pau (31), chief town of the French province of Basses-Pyrénées, on the Gave de Pau, 60 m. E. of Bayonne; is situated amid magnificent mountain scenery, and is a favourite winter resort for the English; linen and chocolate are manufactured; it was the capital of Navarre, and has a magnificent castle; it stands on the edge of a high plateau, and commands a majestic view of the Pyrenees on the S.
Pauillac, a port for Bordeaux, on the left bank of the Gironde.
Paul, the name of five Popes: Paul I., Pope from 757 to 797; Paul II., Pope from 1464 to 1471; Paul III., Pope from 1534 to 1549, was zealous against the Protestant cause, excommunicated Henry VIII. in 1536, sanctioned the Jesuit order in 1540, convened and convoked the Council of Trent in 1545; Paul IV., Pope from 1555 to 1559, originally an ascetic, was zealous for the best interests of the Church and public morality, established the Inquisition at Rome, and issued the first Index Expurgatorius; Paul V., Pope from 1605 to 1621, his pontificate distinguished by protracted strife with the Venetian republic, arising out of the claim of the clergy for immunity from the civil tribunals, and which was brought to an end through the intervention of Henry IV. of France in 1607; it need not be added that he was zealous for orthodoxy, like his predecessors.
Paul, St., originally called Saul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, by birth a Jew and a Roman citizen; trained to severity by Gamaliel at Jerusalem in the Jewish faith, and for a time the bitter persecutor of the Christians, till, on his way to Damascus, in the prosecution of his hostile purposes, the overpowering conviction flashed upon him that he was fighting against the cause that, as a Jew, he should have embraced, and which he was at once smitten with zeal to further, as the one cause on which hinged the salvation, not of the Jews only, but of the whole world. He did more for the extension, if not the exposition, of the Christian faith at its first promulgation than any of the Apostles, and perhaps all of them together, and it is questionable if but for him it would have become, as it has become, the professed religion of the most civilised section of the world.
Paul I., Czar of Russia, son of the Empress Catharine II., and her successor in 1796; was a despotic and arbitrary ruler; fought with the allies against France, but entered into an alliance with Napoleon in 1799; was murdered by certain of his nobles as he was being forced to abdicate (1734-1801).
Paul and Virginia, a celebrated novel by Saint-Pierre, written on the eve of the French Revolution, in which “there rises melodiously, as it were, the wail of a moribund world: everywhere wholesome Nature in unequal conflict with diseased, perfidious art; cannot escape from it in the lowest hut, in the remotest island of the sea”; it records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the false, artificial sentimentality that prevailed at the time among the upper classes of France.
Paul Samosata, so called as born at Samosata, on the Euphrates, a heresiarch who denied the doctrine of three persons in one God, was bishop of Antioch, under the sway of Zenobia, but deposed on her defeat by Aurelian in 272.
Paulding, American writer, born in New York State; author of “History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan,” and the novels “The Dutchman's Fireside” and “Westward Ho” (1779-1860).
Pauli, Reinhold, German historian of England, born in Berlin; studied much in England, and became professor of History at Göttingen; wrote “Life of King Alfred,” “History of England from the Accession of Henry II. to the Death of Henry VII.,” “Pictures of Old England,” and “Simon de Montfort” (1823-1882).
Paulicians, a heretical sect founded by Constantine of Mananalis about A.D. 660 in Armenia, and persisting in spite of severe persecution, were transferred to Thrace in 970, where remnants were found as late as the 13th century; they held that an evil spirit was the creator and god of this world, and that God was the ruler of the next; they refused to ascribe divinity to Christ, to worship Mary, to reverence the cross, or observe the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist; their name was derived from the special regard in which they held the writings of St. Paul, from which they professed to derive their tenets; they were charged with Manichæism, but they indignantly repudiated the imputation.
Pauline, Browning's first poem, written at 19 and published at 21, “breathless, intense, melodramatic,” says Professor Saintsbury, “eschewing incident, but delighting in analysis, which was to be one of the poet's points throughout, and ultimately to prevail over the others.”
Paulinus, the first archbishop of York, sent in company with Augustin from Rome by Gregory to Britain in 601: laboured partly in Kent and partly in Northumbria, and persuaded Edwin of Northumbria to embrace Christianity in 629; d. 644.
Paulus, Heinrich, one of the founders of German rationalism, born near Stuttgart; held in succession sundry professorships; denied the miraculous in the Scripture history, and invented ingenious rational explanations, now out of date (1761-1851).
Pausanias, a famous Spartan general, the grandson of Leonidas, who, as commander-in-chief of the Greeks, overthrew the Persian army under Mardonius at Platæa in 479, but who, elated by this and other successes, aimed at the sovereignty of Greece by alliance with Xerxes, and being discovered, took refuge in a temple at Athens, where he was blockaded and starved to death in 477 B.C., his mother throwing the first stone of the pile that was cast up to bar his exit.
Pausanias, a Greek traveller and topographer, lived during the reigns of Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius; wrote an “Itinerary of Greece” in 10 books, the fruit of his own peregrinations, full of descriptions of great value both to the historian and the antiquary.
Pavia (30), on the Ticino, in Lombardy, is an imposing “city of a hundred towers,” with little industry or commerce; in its unfinished cathedral St. Augustine was buried; San Michele, where the early kings of Italy were crowned, dates from the 7th century; the University was founded by Charlemagne, and has now attached to it colleges for poor students, a library, museum, botanic garden, and school of art; stormed by Napoleon in 1796, Pavia was in Austrian possession from 1814 till its inclusion in the kingdom of Italy 1859.
Paxton, Sir Joseph, architect of the Crystal Palace, born in Bedfordshire, was originally a gardener in the service of the Duke of Devonshire, and promoted to the charge of the duke's gardens at Chatsworth, where he displayed the architectural ability in the construction of large glass conservatories which developed itself in the construction of the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which he received the honour of knighthood (1803-1865).
Payn, James, English novelist, born at Cheltenham; edited Chambers's Journal and Cornhill Magazine; his novels were numerous and of average quality, “Lost Sir Massingberd” and “By Proxy” among the most successful (1830-1899).
Payne, John, actor and playwright, born in New York; resided in London from 1813 to 1832; most of his days a stranger in a strange land, immortalised himself as the author of “Home, Sweet Home”; only his remains buried at home 30 years after his death at Tunis (1792-1852).
Peabody, George, philanthropist, born at Danvers, now Peabody, in Massachusetts, U.S.; made a large fortune as a dry-goods merchant in Baltimore and as a stockbroker as well in London; gave away for benevolent purposes in his lifetime a million and a half of money, and left to his relatives one million more; died in London; his body was laid beside his mother's at South Danvers, U.S. (1795-1869).
Peace Society, a society founded in 1816 for the promotion of permanent and universal peace; advocates a gradual, proportionate, and simultaneous disarmament of all nations and the principle of arbitration.
Peacock, Thomas Love, English novelist, born at Weymouth; was pretty much a self-taught scholar, and no mean one, as his literary activity over half a century abundantly showed; held a post in the India House, his predecessor being James Mill and his successor John Stuart Mill; was an intimate friend of Shelley and the father-in-law of George Meredith; he made his first literary appearance as a poet in two small volumes of poems, and his first novel was “Headlong Hall” as his latest was “Gryll Grange,” all of them written in a vein of conventional satire, and more conspicuous for wit than humour; Thackeray owed not a little to him, little as the generality did, he being “too learned for a shallow age” (1785-1866).
Pearson, John, English prelate, born in Norfolk; held a succession of preferments in the Church, and in the end the bishopric of Chester, author of a very learned work “Exposition of the Creed,” of which Bentley said, “its very dross is gold” (1612-1686).
Peasant War or Bauernkrieg, revolt of the peasantry in the S. and W. of Germany against the oppression and cruelty of the nobles and clergy which broke out at different times from 1500 to 1525, and which, resulting in their defeat, rendered their lot harder than before. The cause of the Reformation, held answerable for the movement, suffered damage as well, but indeed the excesses of the insurgents were calculated to provoke the retribution that was meted out to them.
Pechili, Gulf of, a great land-locked bay opening in the NW. of the Yellow Sea, receives the waters of the Hoang-ho, and on opposite tongues of land at the mouth of it stand Port Arthur and Wei-hai-Wei.
Pecksniff, a pronounced hypocrite in Dickens's “Martin Chuzzlewit,” and who lies and cants whether he is drunk or sober.
Pecock, Reginald, bishop in succession of St. Asaph and Chichester, born in Wales; the author, among other works, of the “Repressor of Over Much Blaming of the Clergy” and the “Book of Faith”; he wrote on behalf of the Church against Lollards, but he offended Churchmen as well as the latter—Churchmen because he agreed with the Lollards in regard to the Bible as the rule of faith, and the Lollards because he appealed to reason as the interpreter of the Bible; he displeased the clergy also by his adoption in theological debate of the mother-tongue, but figures since in literature as the first English theologian; he was accused of treating authority with disrespect as well as setting up reason above revelation, obliged to recant in a most humiliating manner, deprived of his bishopric, and condemned to solitary confinement, away from his books, all to a few, and denied the use of writing materials (1390-1460).
Pedro I., emperor of Brazil, second son of John VI. of Portugal; reigned from 1822 to 1831, when he abdicated in favour of his son (1798-1834).
Pedro II., emperor of Brazil, son of preceding, ascended the throne in 1831; reigned peacefully till 1889, when a sudden revolution obliged him to resign, and retire to Europe and take up his abode in France, where he indulged his taste for science and learning (1825-1891).
Peebles, Peter, a character in Scott's “Redgauntlet.”
Peeblesshire (19), a lowland Scottish county bordered by Lanark, Midlothian, Selkirk, and Dumfries; comprises hilly pastoral land watered by the upper Tweed; Windlestraw, Hartfell, and Broadlaw are the highest of its grassy hills; among the lesser rivers are the Leithen and Quair; some crops are grown, but most of the land is devoted to sheep grazing; a little coal is found in the N.; the only towns are Innerleithen (3) and Peebles (5), the county town, engaged in Tweed manufacture. The county is known also by the name of Tweeddale; its representation in Parliament is united with that of Selkirk.
Peel (4), a fishing town and holiday resort on the W. coast of the Isle of Man, 12 m. NW. of Douglas; it is noted for its castle.
Peel, Sir Robert, English statesman, born near Bury, Lancashire, the son of a wealthy cotton-spinner, to whose large fortune and baronetcy he succeeded; graduated at Oxford in 1808, and next year entered Parliament as Tory member for Cashel; he afterwards sat for his own university, and after 1832 for Tamworth; he was appointed Under-Secretary for the Colonies in 1811. and from 1812 till 1818 was Secretary for Ireland; in 1822 he became Home Secretary, but seceded from the Government when Canning became Premier in 1827; the question at issue was Catholic Emancipation, and it was characteristic of Peel that in the Government which succeeded Canning's he had the courage, having changed his opinions, to introduce the measure which removed the disabilities; opposed to Reform he became leader of the Conservative opposition in the Parliament of 1833; called to the Premiership in 1834 he could not maintain his administration, and it was not till 1841 that the victory of protection over the free-trade agitation gave him a stable majority in the Commons; his first measure was a modification of the corn laws on protectionist principles, 1842; then followed the 7d. income-tax and general tariff revision; in 1845 the agitation for free-trade in corn was brought to a crisis by the Irish potato famine; Peel yielded, and next year carried the final repeal of the corn laws; his “conversion” split the Tory party and he retired from office, becoming a supporter of the Whig ministry in its economical and ecclesiastical policy; he was a master of finance, an easy speaker, slow to form but conscientious to act upon his convictions, a man of the highest character; his death was the result of a fall from horseback (1788-1850).
Peel Towers, the name given to fortresses of the moss-troopers on the Scottish border.
Peele, George, dramatist, of the Elizabethan period, born in London; author of “Arraignment of Paris” and “David and Bathsabe,” full of passages of poetic beauty; has been charged with having led the life of a debauchee and to have died of a disease brought on by his profligacy, but it is now believed he has been maligned (1548-1597).
Peeping Tom of Coventry. See Godiva.
Peers, The Twelve, the famous warriors or paladins at the court of Charlemagne, so called from their equality in prowess and honour.
Pegasus, the winged horse, begotten of Poseidon, who sprung from the body of Medusa when Perseus swooped off her head, and who with a stroke of his hoof broke open the spring of Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, and mounted on whom Bellerophon slew the Chimera, and by means of which he hoped, if he had not been thrown, to ascend to heaven, as Pegasus did alone, becoming thereafter a constellation in the sky; this is the winged horse upon whose back poets, to the like disappointment, hope to scale the empyrean, who have not, like Bellerophon, first distinguished themselves by slaying Chimeras.
Pegu (6), a town of Lower Burma, in the province and on the river of the same name, 46 m. NE. of Rangoon, is a very ancient city; the province (1,162) is a rice-growing country, with great teak forests on the mountain slopes.
Pei-ho, a river of North China, 350 miles long; formed by the junction of four other rivers, on the chief of which stands Pekin; has a short navigable course south-eastward to the Gulf of Pechili, where it is defended by the forts of Taku.
Peirce, Benjamin, American mathematician and astronomer, born in Massachusetts, U.S.; wrote on the discovery of Neptune and Saturn's rings, as well as a number of mathematical text-books (1809-1880).
Peishwah, the name of the overlord or chief minister of Mahratta chiefs in their wars with the Mohammedans, who had his head-quarters at Poonah, the last to hold office putting himself under British protection, and surrendering his territory; nominated as his successor Nana Sahib, who became the chief instigator of the Mutiny of 1857, on account, it is believed, of the refusal of the British Government to continue to him the pension of his predecessor who had adopted him.
Pekin (1,000), the capital of China, on a sandy plain in the basin of the Pei-ho, is divided into two portions, each separately walled, the northern or Manchu city and the southern or Chinese. The former contains the Purple Forbidden city, in which are the Imperial palaces; surrounding it is the August city, in which are a colossal copper Buddha and the Temple of Great Happiness. Outside this are the government offices, foreign legations, the temple of Confucius, a great Buddhist monastery, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and Christian mission stations. The Chinese city has many temples, mission stations, schools, and hospitals; but it is sparsely populated, houses are poor, and streets unpaved. Pekin has railway communication with Hankow, and is connected with other cities and with Russia by telegraph. Its trade and industry are inconsiderable. It is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was Kubla Khan's capital, and has been the metropolis of the empire since 1421.
Pelagius, a celebrated heresiarch of the 5th century, born in Britain or Brittany; denied original sin and the orthodox doctrine of divine grace as the originating and sustaining power in redemption, a heresy for which he suffered banishment from Rome in 418 at the hands of the Church. A modification of this theory went under the name of Semi-Pelagianism, which ascribes only the first step in conversion to free-will, and the subsequent sanctification of the soul to God's grace.
Pelasgi, a people who in prehistoric times occupied Greece, the Archipelago, the shores of Asia Minor, and great part of Italy, and who were subdued, and more or less reduced to servitude, by the Hellenes, and supplanted by them. They appear to have been, so far as we find them, an agricultural people, settled and not roving about, and to have had strongholds enclosed in cyclopean walls, that is, walls consisting of huge boulders unconnected with cement.
Peleus, the son of Æacus, the husband of Thetis, the father of Achilles, and one of the Argonauts, after whom Achilles is named Pelides, i. e. Peleus' boy.
Pelew Islands (10), twenty-six in number, of coral formation, and surrounded by reefs; are in the extreme W. of the Caroline Archipelago in the North Pacific, and SE. of the Philippines. They belong to Spain; are small but fertile, and have a healthy climate. The natives are Malays, and though gentle lead a savage life.
Pelham, a fashionable novel by Bulwer Lytton, severely satirised by Carlyle in “Sartor” in the chapter on “Dandies” as the elect of books of this class.
Pelias, king of Iolchus, and son of Poseidon, was cut to pieces by his own daughters, which were thrown by them into a boiling caldron in the faith of the promise of Medea, that he might thereby be restored to them young again. It was he who, to get rid of Jason, sent him in quest of the golden fleece in the hope that he might perish in the attempt.
Pelican, a bird, the effigy of which was used in the Middle Ages to symbolise charity; generally represented as wounding its breast to feed its young with its own blood, and which became the image of the Christ who shed His blood for His people.
Pelides, a patronymic of Achilles, as the son of Peleus.
Pelion, a range, or the highest of a range, of mountains in the E. of Thessaly, upon which, according to Greek fables, the Titans hoisted up Mount Ossa in order to scale heaven and dethrone Zeus, a strenuous enterprise which did not succeed, and the symbol of all such.
Pelissier, a French marshal, born near Rouen; was made Duc de Malakoff for storming the Malakoff tower, which led to the fall of Sebastopol in 1855; rose from the ranks to be Governor-General of Algeria, the office he held when he died (1794-1864).
Pella, the capital of Macedonia, and the birthplace of Alexander the Great, stood on a hill amid the marches NW. of Thessalonica.
Pellegrini, Carlo, a caricaturist, born in Capua; came to London; was distinguished for the inimitable drollery of his cartoons (1838-1889).
Pellico, Silvio, Italian poet and patriot, born in Piedmont; suffered a fifteen years' imprisonment in the Spielberg at Brünn for his patriotism, from which he was liberated in 1830; he wrote an account of his life in prison, which commanded attention all over Europe, both for the subject-matter of it and the fascination of the style (1789-1854).
Pellisson, Paul, a man of letters and a wit of the age of Louis XIV.; spent some five years in the Bastille, but after his release was appointed historiographer-royal; in his captivity he made a companion of a spider, who was accustomed to eat out of his hand (1624-1693).
Pelopidas, a Theban general, and leader of the “sacred band”; the friend of Epaminondas; contributed to the expulsion (379 B.C.) of the Spartans from the citadel of Thebes, of which they had taken possession in 380, after which he was elected to the chief magistracy; gained a victory over Alexander of Pheræ the tyrant of Thessaly, but lost his life in 362 while too eagerly pursuing the foe.
Peloponnesian War, a war of thirty years' duration (431-404 B.C.) between Athens and Sparta, which ended in the supremacy of the latter, till the latter was overthrown at Leuctra by the Thebans under Epaminondas in 371 B.C. This war is the subject of the history of Thucydides.
Peloponnesus (lit. the Isle of Pelops), the ancient name of the Morea of Greece, the chief cities of which were Corinth, Argos, and Sparta; it was connected with the rest of Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth.
Pelops, in the Greek mythology the grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus, who was slain by his father and served up by him at a banquet he gave the gods to test their omniscience, but of the shoulder of which only Demeter in a fit of abstraction partook, whereupon the gods ordered the body to be thrown into a boiling caldron, from which Pelops was drawn out alive, with the shoulder replaced by one of ivory.
Pembrokeshire (89), a maritime county, the farthest W. in Wales; is washed by St. George's Channel except on the E., where it borders on Cardigan and Carmarthen. It is a county of low hills, with much indented coast-line. Milford Haven, in the S., is one of the best harbours in the world. The climate is humid; two-thirds of the soil is under pasture; coal, iron, lead, and slate are found. St. David's is a cathedral city; the county town is Pembroke (18) on Milford Haven, and near it is the fortified dockyard and arsenal Pembroke Dock (10).
Pemmican, a food for long voyages, particularly in Arctic expeditions, consisting of lean meat or beef without fat dried, pounded, and pressed into cakes. The use of it is now suppressed.
Penance, in the Roman Catholic Church an expression of penitence as well as the sacrament of absolution; also the suffering to which a penitent voluntarily subjects himself, according to the schoolmen, as an expression of his penitence, and in punishment of his sin; the three steps of penitence were contrition, confession, and satisfaction.
Penang or Prince of Wales Islands (91), a small fertile island near the northern opening of the Straits of Malacca, off the Malay coast, and 360 m. NW. of Singapore; is one of the British Straits Settlements, of value strategically; it is hilly, and covered with vegetation; the population are half Chinese, a fourth of them Malays; figs, spices, and tobacco are exported. The capital is Georgetown (25), on the island. Province Wellesley (97), on the mainland, belongs to the same settlement; it exports tapioca and sugar. The Dindings (2), 80 m. S., are another dependency.
Penates, the name given by the Romans to their household deities, individually and unitedly, in honour of whom a fire, in charge of the vestal virgins, was kept permanently burning.
Penda, a Mercian king of the 7th century, who headed a reactionary movement of heathenism against the domination of Christianity in England, and for a time seemed to carry all before him, but Christianity, under the preaching of the monks, had gained too deep a hold, particularly in Northumbria, and he was overpowered in 665 in one final struggle and slain.
Pendennis, the name of a novel by Thackeray, from the name of the hero, and published in 1849-50 in succession to “Vanity Fair.”
Pendleton, a NW. suburb of Manchester, in the direction of Bolton, with extensive manufactures and collieries.
Pendragon, a title bestowed on kings by the ancient Britons, and especially on the chiefs among them chosen by election, so called from their wearing a dragon on their shields or as a crest in sign of sovereignty.
Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, celebrated for her conjugal fidelity during his twenty years' absence, in the later half of which an army of suitors pled for her hand, pleading that her husband would never return; but she put them all off by a promise of marriage as soon as she finished a web (called after Penelope's web) she was weaving, which she wove by day and undid at night, till their importunities took a violent form, when her husband arrived and delivered her.
Peninsular State, the State of Florida, from its shape.
Peninsular War, a war carried on in Spain and Portugal during the years 1808 and 1814, between the French on the one hand and the Spanish, Portuguese, and British, chiefly under Wellington, on the other, and which was ended by the victory of the latter over the former at Toulouse just after Napoleon's abdication.
Penitential Psalms or Psalms of Confession, is a name given from very early times to Psalms vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., which are specially expressive of sorrow for sin. The name belonged originally to the fifty-first Psalm, which was recited at the close of daily morning service in the primitive Church.
Penitents, Order Of, a religious order established in 1272 for the reception to the Church of reformed courtesans.
Penn, William, founder of Pennsylvania, the son of an admiral, born in London; was converted to Quakerism while a student at Oxford, and for a fanatical attack on certain fellow-students expelled the University; his father sent him to travel in France, and afterwards placed him in charge of his Irish estates; his religious views occasioned several disputes with his father, and ultimately brought him into conflict with the Government; he spent several periods of imprisonment writing books in defence of religious liberty, among them “The Great Cause of Liberty of Conscience” (1671); then travelled in Holland and Germany propagating his views; his father's death brought him a fortune and a claim upon the crown which he commuted for a grant of land in North America, where he founded (1682) the colony of Pennsylvania—the prefix Penn, by command of Charles II. in honour of the admiral; here he established a refuge for all persecuted religionists, and laying out Philadelphia as the capital, governed his colony wisely and generously for two years; he returned to England, where his friendship with James II. brought many advantages to the Quakers, but laid him under harassing and undeserved prosecutions for treason in the succeeding reign; a second visit to his colony (1699-1701) gave it much useful legislation; on his return his agent practically ruined him, and he was a prisoner in the Fleet in 1708; the closing years of his life were clouded by mental decay (1644-1718).
Pennant, Thomas, traveller and naturalist, born near Holywell, Flintshire; studied at Oxford, but took no degree; in 1746 he made a tour of Cornwall; among his subsequent journeys, of which he published accounts, were tours in Ireland (1754), the Continent (1764), Scotland (1769 and 1772), and Wales; he wrote several works on zoological subjects, and published an amusing “Literary Life of the late Thomas Pennant, Esq., by Himself,” 1793 (1726-1798).
Pennsylvania (5,258), most populous but one of the American States, lies N. of Mason and Dixon's Line, separated by New Jersey, on the E. by the Delaware River, with Ohio on the W., New York on the N., and Lake Erie at the NW. corner. The country is hilly, being traversed by the Blue Mountains and the Alleghany ranges, with many fertile valleys between the chains, extensive forests, and much picturesque scenery. The Cumberland Valley in the W. is one of the best farming lands in New England. The Alleghany River in the W. and the two branches of the Susquehanna in the centre water the State. Pennsylvania is the greatest mining State in the Union; its iron-mines and petroleum-wells supply half the iron and most of the oil used in the country; its bituminous coal-beds in the W. are extremely rich, and the anthracite deposits of the E. are unrivalled; in manufactures, too, it ranks second among the States; these are very varied, the most valuable being iron, steel, and shipbuilding. Founded by Swedes, it passed to English settlers in 1664; the first charter was granted to William Penn in 1681. In the Revolution it took a prominent part, and was among the first States of the Union. Education is well advanced; there are 20 State colleges. The mining population includes many Irish, Hungarian, and Italian immigrants, among whom riots are frequent. Of the agriculturists many are of Dutch descent, and about two millions still speak a Low German patois known as Pennsylvanian Dutch. Harrisburg (39) is the capital; the metropolis is Philadelphia (1,047), the second largest city in the country; while Pittsburg (239), Alleghany (105), Scranton (75), and Reading (59) are among the many large towns.
Penny, originally a silver coin, weighed in the 7th century 1/240-th of a Saxon pound, but decreased in weight till in Elizabeth's time it was 1/63 of an ounce troy. It was at first indented with a cross so as to be broken for halfpennies and farthings, but silver coins of these denominations were coined by Edward I. Edward VI. stopped the farthings, and the halfpence were stopped in the Commonwealth. Copper coinage was established in 1672. The present coins were issued first in 1860. They are half the size of their predecessors, and intrinsically worth one-seventh of their nominal value.
Penny Wedding, a wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival.
Penrith (9), a market town of Cumberland, and tourist centre for the English lakes; contains a very old church and school, and ruins of a picturesque castle. Brewing, iron-founding, and timber-sawing are its industries.
Penryn (3), a Cornish market town at the head of Falmouth harbour; has manufactures of paper, woollen cloth, and gunpowder. It has considerable fishing industry, and ships the Penryn granite quarried near.
Penseroso, II, a famous Italian poem by Milton, written in 1633.
Pensionary, the Grand, a State functionary of Holland, whose office, abolished in 1795, it was to superintend State interests, register decrees, negotiate with other countries, and take charge of the revenues, &c.
Pentacle. See Pentagram.
Pentagram, a symbol presumed to possess a magical influence, particularly to charm away evil spirits, formed by placing the figure of an equilateral triangle athwart another.
Pentamerone, a collection of tales in the Neapolitan dialect, supposed to be told during five days by ten old women to a pseudo-princess, and published at Naples 1637; is of great value to students of folk-lore.
Pentateuch, the name given by Origen to the first five books of the Bible, which the Jews call the Law or Five-fifths of the Law, the composition of which has of late years been subjected to keen critical investigation, and the whole ascribed to documents of different dates and diverse authorship, to the rejection of the old traditional hypothesis that it was the work of Moses, first called in question by Spinoza, and shown to be untenable by Jean Astruc (q. v.).
Pentecost (i. e. fiftieth), a great feast of the Jews, so called as held on the fiftieth day after the second of the Passover. It is called also the Feast of Harvest, or Weeks of First-Fruits, the Passover feast being connected with the commencement and this with the conclusion of harvest. It is regarded by the Jews as commemorative of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, and will never cease to be associated in the Christian memory with the great awakening from which dates the first birth of the Christian consciousness in the Christian Church, the moment when the disciples of Christ first realised in common that their Master was not dead but alive, and nearer to them than He had been when present in the flesh.
Pentelicus, a range of mountains in Attica between Athens and Marathon, famous for its quarries of fine white marble.
Penthesilea, the daughter of Ares and the queen of the Amazons; on the death of Hector she came to the assistance of the Trojans, but was slain by Achilles, who mourned over her when dying on account of her beauty, her youth, and her courage.
Pentheus, a king of Thebes, opposed to the introduction of the Bacchus worship into his kingdom, was driven mad by the god, and torn in pieces by his mother and sisters, who, under the Bacchic frenzy, mistook him for a wild beast.
Penthièvre, Duc de, the father-in-law of Philippe Egalité, and the protector of Florian (1725-1793).
Pentland Firth is the strait between the Orkneys and the Scottish mainland connecting the North Sea with the Atlantic, 12 m. long by 6 broad, and swept by a rapid current very dangerous to navigation; 5000 vessels traverse it annually.
Pentonville, a populous district of London, in the parishes of St James's, Clerkenwell, and Islington, where is the Pentonville Model Prison, built in 1840-42 on the radiating principle to accommodate 520 prisoners.
Penumbra, the name given to the partial shadow on the rim of the total shadow of an eclipse, also to the margin of the light and shade of a picture.
Penzance (14), the largest town in Cornwall, most westerly borough in England, and terminus of the Great Western Railway, is beautifully situated on the rocky W. shore of Mount's Bay; its public buildings chiefly of granite. It has a fine harbour and docks, and is the centre of the mackerel and pilchard fishing industries. Its mild climate makes it a favourite watering-place.
People's Palace, Mile End Road, London, is an institution for the recreation and instruction of the East-end population, opened by the Queen in May 1887, and owing its origin to the impulse given by Sir W. Besant's “All Sorts and Conditions of Men.” In it are a library, art galleries, concert and reading rooms, baths, gymnasium, &c., and technical classes and handicraft schools are held; these are attended by 5000 pupils, and the institution is visited by a million and a quarter people annually.
Pepin the Short, king of the Franks, was the son of Charles Martel, and at first shared with his brother Carloman the viceroyalty of the kingdom under Hilderik III.; in 747 Carloman retired to a monastery, and five years later Pepin deposed Hilderik and ascended the throne; his kingdom embraced the valleys of the Rhine, the Rhône, and the Seine; he united his interests with those of the Church, and in 756 entered Italy to rescue the Pope from the threatened domination of the Lombards; reduced Aistulf of Lombardy to vassalage, assumed the title of Patrician of Rome, and by bestowing on Pope Stephen III. the “Exarchate” of the Roman empire, laid the foundation of papal temporal sovereignty, five cities being placed under his jurisdiction; his subsequent exploits included the conquest of the Loire Valley and the expulsion of the Moors from France; his fame was overshadowed by that of his son Charlemagne; d. 678.
Pepsin, an essential constituent of the gastric juice extracted from the stomach of the calf, sheep, and pig, and used in medicine to supply any defect of it in the stomach of a patient.
Pepys, Samuel, author of a famous Diary, a scholarly man and respected as connected with different grades of society; held a clerkship in the Admiralty, and finally the secretaryship; kept a diary of events from 1660 to 1669, which remained in MS. till 1826, when it was published in part by Lord Braybrooke, and is of interest for the insight it gives into the manners of the time and the character of the author; the latest and completest edition of this Diary is that of H. B. Wheatley, published in 1893-96, in eight vols. (1633-1703).
Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, on the N. side of the Golden Horn, and the foreign diplomatic quarter.
Peræa, “the country beyond,” designated that part of Palestine beyond or E. of the Jordan.
Perceval, a hero of the legends of chivalry, famed for his adventures in quest of the Holy Graal.
Perceval, Spencer, English statesman, born in London, son of the Earl of Egmont; bred to the bar; entered Parliament as a supporter of Pitt, and held a succession of posts under different administrations, attaining the Premiership, which he held from 1800 to 1812, on the 11th of May, of which year he was shot dead by a madman of the name of Bellingham in the lobby of the House; he was devoted to the throne, and a man of upright character but narrow sympathies (1762-1812).
Percival, James Gates, American poet and geologist, born at Kensington, Connecticut; took his degree at Yale in 1815, and qualified as a medical practitioner; he was for a few months professor of Chemistry at West Point, but retired and gave himself to literature and geology; his scientific works are valuable; “Prometheus and Clio” appeared in 1822, “Dream of a Day” in 1843; he died at Hazel Green, Wisconsin (1795-1856).
Percy, a noble English family of Norman origin, the founder of which accompanied the Conqueror, and was rewarded with grants of land for his services; a successor of whom in the female line, Henry, the father of the famous Hotspur, was created Duke of Northumberland in 1377.
Percy, Thomas, English prelate and antiquary, born at Bridgenorth, Shropshire, the son of a grocer; devoted himself to the collection of old ballads, and published in 1765 “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry”; he published also ballads of his own, among them “The Hermit of Warkworth,” and was the author of “O Nannie, wilt thou gang wi' me?” he associated with Johnson, Burke, and other notables of the period, and was a member of Dr. Johnson's Literary Club; became bishop of Dromore in 1782, where he was held in affectionate regard; was blind for some years before he died (1729-1811).
Perdiccas, a favourite general of Alexander the Great, who, when on his deathbed, took his signet ring off his finger and gave it to him; he became an object of distrust after Alexander's death, and was assassinated in Egypt.
Pereira, Jonathan, pharmacologist, born in London; author of the “Elements of Materia Medica,” a standard work; was examiner on the subject in London University (1804-1853).
Perekop, Isthmus of, connects the Crimea with the S. of Russia; is pierced by a ship-canal.
Perez, Antonio, Spanish statesman, and minister of Philippe II., born in Aragon; was the tool of the king in the murder of Escoveda, the confidant of John of Austria; was convicted of betraying State secrets and imprisoned, but escaped; being in possession of royal secrets, which he published, Philippe tried every means to arrest him, but Perez evaded capture, and found refuge in France, where he died in poverty (1539-1611).
Perfectionism, the doctrine that moral perfection is by divine grace attainable in the present life.
Perfectionists, an American sect or society founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 at Oneida, New York State, on Communistic principles, but owning no law save that of the Spirit, and subject to no criticism but the judgment they freely passed on one another, a system which they were obliged to modify in 1880 so far as to recognise the rights of matrimony and the family, and to adopt the principle of a joint-stock limited liability company, on which lines the community is proving a prosperous one.
Pergamos, the citadel of Troy, a name frequently given by the poets to the city itself.
Pergamos, an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor; founded by a colony of Greek emigrants in 3rd century B.C., and eventually the centre of a province of the name, which was subject for a time to Macedonia, but threw off the yoke and became independent, till it became a Roman province by bequest on the part of Attalus III. in 133 B.C. The city possessed a library second only to that of Alexandria, contained one of the seven churches mentioned in the Revelation, and gave its name to parchment, alleged to have been invented there.
Peri, in the Eastern mythology a fairy being of surpassing beauty, begotten of fallen spirits, and excluded from Paradise, but represented as leading a life of pleasure and endowed with immortality; there were male Peris as well as female, and they were intermediate between angels and demons.
Periander, the tyrant of Corinth from 625 to 585 B.C., was one of the seven sages of Greece, and a patron of literature and the arts; Arion and Anacharsis lived at his Court.
Pericles, the great Athenian statesman, born in Athens, of noble parentage; was a devoted disciple of Anaxagoras; entered public life 467 B.C. as a democrat, and soon became head of the democratic party, to the increase of the power of the citizens and annihilation of the domination of the oligarchy centred in the Areopagus; hostile to territorial aggrandisement, he sought, as his chief ambition, the unification of Greece in one grand confederacy, but was defeated in this noble aim by the jealousy of Sparta; he put down all rivalry, however, in Athens itself, and established himself as absolute ruler with the consent of the citizens, reforming the laws, adorning the city, and encouraging literature and the arts, masters, many wise in the one and skilful in the other, he had at his disposal, such as few or none of the cities of the world had ever before or have had since; the resulting prosperity did but enhance the envy of the other States, Sparta in particular, and two years before he died the spirit of hostility took shape in the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (q. v.); he had surrounded the city with walls, and his policy was to defend it from within them rather than face the enemy in the field, but it proved fatal, for it tended to damp rather than quicken the ardour of the citizens, and to add to this a plague broke out among them in 430 B.C., which cut down the most valiant of their number, and he himself lay down to die the year after; he was a high-souled, nobly-bred man, great in all he thought and did, and he gathered around him nearly all the noble-minded and noble-hearted men of his time to adorn his reign and make Athens the envy of the world; d. 429 B.C.
Périer, Casimir, a French banker and politician, born at Grenoble; took part in the Revolution of 1830, became Minister of the Interior in 1831; suppressed the insurrections at Paris and Lyons; died of cholera (1777-1832).
Perigee, the point in the orbit of the moon or a planet nearest the earth.
Périgord, an ancient territory of France, S. of Guienne, famous for its truffles, of which Périgueux (q. v.) was the capital; united to the Crown of France by Henry IV. in 1589, it is now part of the department of Dordogne and part of Lot-et-Garonne.
Périgueux (31), chief town of the department of Dordogne, France, on the Isle, 95 m. by rail NE. of Bordeaux, is a narrow irregular town with a cathedral after St. Mark's in Venice, museum of antiquities, and library; iron and woollens are the industries; truffles and truffle pies are exported.
Perihelion, the point on the orbit of a planet or comet nearest the sun.
Perim, a small barren, crescent-shaped island at the mouth of the Red Sea, belonging to Britain, and used as a coaling-station.
Peripatetic Philosophy, the name given to the philosophy of Aristotle, from his habit of walking about with his disciples as he philosophised in the shady walks of the Lyceum.
Pernambuco (130), a seaport in N. Brazil, consists of three portions connected by bridges: Recife, on a peninsula, the business quarter; San Antonio, the modern quarter, on an intermediate island; and Bon Vista, on the mainland; manufactures cotton and tobacco, and has shipbuilding yards; the trade chiefly with England, the United States, and France; it is the capital of a province (1,100) of the name, producing sugar and cotton.
Peronella, in fairy legend a pretty country lass who exchanges places with an old wizened queen, and receives the homage due to royalty, but gladly takes back her rags and beauty.
Perowne, Stewart, Bishop of Worcester, born at Burdwân, of Huguenot extraction, educated at Cambridge; became a Fellow of Corpus Christi; held several academic and ecclesiastical appointments; an eminent Hebrew scholar and exegete; his chief work a commentary on the Psalms; b. 1823.
Perpignan (28), a town on the Têt, 7 m. from the sea; a fortress in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales; has a cathedral of the 14th century and a bourse in Moorish-Gothic, and manufactures wine and brandy; belonged originally to Aragon; was taken by France in 1475, and retaken, after restoration to Spain, in 1642, since which time it has belonged to France.
Perrault, Charles, French man of letters, born in Paris; bred to the bar; distinguished as the author of inimitable fairy tales, which have immortalised his name, as “Puss in Boots,” “Cinderella,” “Bluebeard,” &c., as also “Parallel des Anciens et des Modernes,” in which his aim was to show—an ill-informed attempt—that the ancients were inferior in everything to the moderns (1628-1703).
Persecutions of the Church, by which are meant those at the hands of Imperial Rome, are usually reckoned 10 in number, viz., those under Nero in 64, Domitian 95, Trajan 107, Hadrian 125, Marcus Aurelius 165, Severus 202, Maximinus 235, Decius 249, Valerianus 257, and Diocletian 303; besides these there were others quite as deadly within the Church itself on the part of orthodox against heterodox, or Catholic against Protestant, and Established against Nonconformist.
Persephone, in the Greek mythology the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the Proserpine of the Romans. See Proserpine.
Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia, represented now by its ruins, which stand 25 m. from the NW. shores of Lake Niris, on the banks of the Murghab River, though in its palmy days it was described as “the Glory of the East.”
Perseus, in the Greek mythology the son of Zeus and Danaë, and the grandson of Acrisius, king of Argos, of whom it was predicted before his birth that he would kill his grandfather, who at his birth enclosed both his mother and him in a chest and cast it into the sea, which bore them to an island where they became slaves of the king, Polydectes, who sought to marry Danaë; failing in his suit, and to compel her to submission, he ordered Perseus off to fetch him the head of the Medusa; who, aided by Hermes and Athena, was successful in his mission, cut off the head of the Medusa with the help of a mirror and sickle, brought it away with him in a pouch, and after delivering and marrying Andromeda in his return journey, exposed the head before Polydectes and court at a banquet, which turned them all into stone, whereupon he gave the Gorgon's head to Athena to place on her shield, and set out for Argos; Acrisius hearing of his approach fled, but was afterwards killed accidentally by his grandson, who in throwing a discus had crushed his foot.
Persia (7,000), occupies the tableland 5000 ft. high between the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea on the S., the Caspian Sea and Turkestan on the N., Armenia on the W., and Afghanistan and Beluchistan on the E., and is a country three times as large as France; lofty mountain ranges traverse it from NW. to SE. and gird its northern boundary; the highest peak is Mount Demavend, 18,500 ft., in the Elburz, overlooking the Caspian. Most of the rivers evaporate inland; only one is navigable, the Karun, in the SW.; Lake Urumiyah, in the NW., is the largest, a very salt and shallow sheet of water. The eastern half of the country is largely desert, where the sand is swept about in clouds by the winds. With little rain, the climate is intensely hot in summer and cold in winter. Forests clothe the outer slopes of the mountains, and scanty brushwood the inner plains. Wheat and barley are grown on higher levels, and cotton, sugar, and fruits on the lower, all with the help of Irrigation. Agriculture is the chief industry; there are manufactures of carpets, shawls, and porcelain. The internal trade is carried on by caravans; foreign trade is not extensive, and is chiefly in Russian hands; the exports include opium, carpets, pearls, and turquoises. The capital is Teheran (210), a narrow, crooked, filthy town, at the southern foot of the Elburz. Tabriz (180), in the NW., is the emporium of trade. Ispahân (60), Meshed (60), Barfurush (60), and Shiraz (30) are the other important towns. The Government is despotic; the emperor is called the Shah. The people are courteous and refined in manner, witty, and fluent in speech; they are of Aryan stock and Mohammedan faith. The original empire of Persia was established by Cyrus 537 B.C. A century later decay set in. Revival under Parthian and Sassanian dynasties lasted from 138 B.C. till A.D. 639. Persia became then a province of the Arabs. From the 14th century it fell under Mongol sway, and again in the 16th century under Turkish. The present dynasty was founded in 1795. The future of the country is in Russian and British hands.
Persian Gulf, a great inland sea lying between Arabia and Persia, and entered from the Indian Ocean through the Gulf of Oman; is 650 m. long and from 50 to 250 m. broad. The Arabian coast is low and sandy, the Persian high. The chief islands are in the W., where also is the Great Pearl Bank. The only river of importance received is the Shat-el-Arab, which brings down the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris.
Persian Wars, wars conducted by Persia in the three expeditions against Greece, first in 490 B.C. under Darius, and defeated by the Athenians under Miltiades at Marathon; the second, 480 B.C., under Xerxes, opposed by Leonidas and his 300 Spartans at Thermopylæ and defeated by the Athenians under Themistocles at Salamis by sea; and the third, in 479 B.C., under Xerxes, by the Greeks under the Spartan Pausanius at Platæa.
Persians, a name given to sculptured draped male figures used as columns.
Persians, The, belonged to the Aryan race, hence Iran, the original name of their country; they were related rather to the Western than the Eastern world, and it is from them that continuous history takes its start; they first recognised an ethereal essence, which they called Light, as the principle of all good, and man as related to it in such a way that, by the worship of it, he became assimilated to it himself. Among them first the individual subject stood face to face with a universal object, and claimed a kinship with it as the light of life. The epoch thus created was the emancipation of the human being from dependent childhood to self-dependent manhood, and it constituted the first epoch in the self-conscious history, which is the history proper, of the human race. The idea the Persians formed of the principle of good came far short of the reality indeed, but they first saw that it was of purely illuminating quality and universal, and that the destiny of man was to relate himself to it, to know, worship, and obey it. With the ethereal principle of good they associated an equally ethereal principle of evil, and, as they identified the one with light, they identified the other with darkness. Man they regarded as related to both, and his destiny to adore the one and disown the other as master. As the light had no portion in the darkness, and the darkness no portion in the light, the religion arose which pervades that of the Bible, which requires the children of the former to separate from those of the latter.
Persiflage, a French term for a light, quizzing mockery, or scoffing, specially on serious subjects, out of a cool, callous contempt for them.
Persigny, Fialin, Duc de, a French statesman, a supporter all along of Louis Napoleon, abetting him in all his efforts to attain the throne of France, from the affair of Strasburg in 1836 to the coup d'état of December 1851, and becoming in the end Minister of the Interior under him; had to leave France at his fall (1806-1872).
Persius, the last king of Macedonia; was conquered by Paulus Æmilius, and died captive at Rome 167 B.C.
Persius, Roman satirist, born in Etruria, was a pupil and friend of Cornutus the Stoic; a man much esteemed, who died young, only 28; wrote six short satires in the purity of a white-souled manhood, of much native vigour, though not equal to those of Horace and Juvenal, and that have commanded the regard of all scholars down to the present time; they have often been translated (34-62).
Perth (30), the county-town of Perthshire, on the Tay, 22 m. W. of Dundee: is a beautifully situated town, with fine buildings, the only old one being the restored St. John's Church. Its industries are dyeing and ink-making. At Scone, 2 m. distant, the kings of Scotland were crowned; and the murder of James I., the Gowrie conspiracy, and the battle of Tippermuir are but a few of its many historical associations. “The Five Articles of Perth,” adopted by a General Assembly held there in 1618, did much to precipitate the conflict between the Royal power and the Scottish Church; they enjoined kneeling at the Lord's Supper, observance of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost, confirmation, and the private administration of the sacraments.
Perth (8), the capital of West Australia, on the Swan River.
Perthshire (122), the most beautiful and varied county in Scotland, occupies the whole of the Tay Valley and part of the Forth, and is bounded by nine other counties. The N. and W. are mountainous, with many rivers and lakes, and much of the finest scenery in Scotland; the Trossachs and Loch Katrine are world famed. In the E. is extensive woodland and the Carse of Gowrie, one of the most fertile of Scottish plains. Ben Lawers is the highest mountain, Loch Tay the largest lake. Much of the soil is good only for sheep farms, deer forests, and grouse moors; the county is visited annually by thousands of tourists and sportsmen.
Pertinax, Helvius, Roman emperor in succession to Commodus; rose from the ranks by his military services to the imperial dignity, which he was pressed to accept against his will, and was assassinated by the Prætorian Guards less than three months after, in consequence of the reforms he projected in order to restore the ancient discipline of the army (126-193).
Perturbations, name given to irregularities or slight deviations in the movement of a heavenly body, due chiefly to the neighbourhood of another point in its orbit.
Peru (3,000), a country in the W. of South America, twice the size of Austro-Hungary, lies between Brazil and Bolivia and the Pacific, with Ecuador on the N. and Chile on the S.; it consists of a seaboard plain, hot and rainless, but intersected by rich river courses, in which sugar, cotton, and coffee are grown; the Andes chains, snow-tipped and presenting every kind of climate and variety of vegetation on their slopes and in their valleys, rich in minerals and yielding chiefly great quantities of silver; and the Montana, the eastward slopes of the Andes, clad with valuable forests where the cinchona is cultivated, and the upland basins of the Ucayalé River and the Upper Amazon, very fertile, with great coffee and cacao plantations and abundant rain; the chief articles of export are silver, nitre, guano, sugar, and wool. Lima (200), the capital, is 8 m. inland from its port Callao (35); has an old cathedral, and is the chief centre of commerce; its principal merchants are Germans. The government is republican; the ruling classes are of Spanish descent, but half of the population are Inca Indians and a quarter are half-castes. From the 12th to the 16th centuries the Incas enjoyed a high state of civilisation and an extensive empire administered on socialistic principles; they attained great skill in the industries and arts. The Spanish conqueror Pizarro, landing in 1532, overthrew the empire and established the colony; after three centuries of oppression Peru threw off the Spanish yoke in 1824. The history of the republic has been one of continual restlessness, and a war with Chile 1879-84 ended in complete disaster; recovery is slowly progressing.
Perugia (17), Italian walled city on the right bank of the Tiber, 127 m. by rail N. of Rome, with a cathedral of the 15th century, some noteworthy churches, a Gothic municipal palace, picture gallery, university, and library; is rich in art treasures and antiquarian remains; it has silk and woollen industries; it was anciently called Perusia, and one of the cities of ancient Etruria, and in its day has experienced very varied fortunes; it was the centre of the Umbrian school of painting.
Perugino, his proper name Vannucci, Italian painter, born near Perugia, whence his name; studied with Leonardo da Vinci at Florence, where he chiefly resided; was one of the teachers of Raphael, painted religious subjects, did frescoes for churches that have nearly all perished, a “Christ giving the Keys to Peter” being the best extant; Ruskin contrasts his work with Turner's; “in Turner's distinctive work,” he says, “colour is scarcely acknowledged unless under influence of sunshine ... wherever the sun is not, there is melancholy and evil,” but “in Perugino's distinctive work”—to whom he therefore gives “the captain's place over all”—“there is simply no darkness, no wrong. Every colour is lovely and every space is light; the world, the universe, is divine; all sadness is a part of harmony, and all gloom a part of light” (1446-1524).
Peschiera, one of the fortresses of the Quadrilateral (q. v.), on an island in the Mincio, 14 m. W. of Verona.
Peshawar or Peshawur (84), a town on the Indian frontier, and centre of trade with Afghanistan, is 10 m. from the entrance of the Khyber Pass, on the Kabul River, and though ill-fortified is a bulwark of the empire, being provided with a large garrison of infantry and artillery.
Peshito (i. e. simple), a version of the Bible in Syriac, executed not later than the middle of the 2nd century for Judaic Christians in the Syrian Church, the version of the Old Testament being executed direct from the Hebrew and that of the New being the first translation of the Greek of it into a foreign tongue, and both of value in questions affecting exegesis and the original text; the New Testament version contains all the books now included except the Apocalypse, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John.
Pessimism, a name given now to a habit of feeling, now to a system of opinion; as the former it denotes a tendency to dwell on the dark or gloomy side of things, culminating in a sense of their vanity and nothingness, while in the latter it is applied to all systems of opinion which lay the finger on some black spot in the structure of the life of the world or of the universe, which so long as it remains is thought to render it unworthy of existence.
Pestalozzi, Johann Heinrich, a celebrated educationist, born at Zurich; founder of a natural system of education, beginning with childhood, and who, however unsuccessful in the working of it himself from his want of administrative faculty, persuaded others by his writings to adopt it, especially in Germany, and to adopt it both enthusiastically and successfully; his method, which he derived from Rousseau, was based on the study of human nature as we find it born in the child, and it aimed at the harmonious development of all its innate capabilities, beginning with the most rudimentary (1745-1827).
Pesth or Budapest (492), on the left bank of the Danube, forming one municipality with Buda on the right, is the capital of Hungary, and 173 m. by rail E. of Vienna; Pesth is built on a plain, joined to Buda by three bridges, the last on the Danube, and is a thriving modern city, with picture galleries, parliament house, library, university, science schools, many baths, and public gardens; it makes machinery, agricultural implements, cutlery, flour, &c., and does a great trade in corn, wool, hides, wines, and bacon.
Petalism, banishment in Sparta similar to ostracism in Athens, procured by writing the name on an olive leaf.
Petard, a cone-shaped explosive machine for bursting open gates, barriers, &c., made of iron and filled with powder and ball.
Petasus, the winged-cap of the god Mercury.
Petchora, the largest river in Northern Russia, rises in the Ural Mountains and flows N. through Vologda and Archangel, then westward and N. again, entering the Arctic Ocean by a large, island-studded estuary, after a course of 1000 m. through sombre forests and wild, sombre scenery.
Peter, the Apostle, originally called Simon, was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee; one of the first called by Christ to become a disciple; the first to recognise, as the foundation-stone of the Church, the divinity in the humanity of His Master, and the first thereafter to recognise and proclaim that divinity as glorified in the cross, to whom in recognising which, especially the former, was committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and who accordingly was the first to open the door of it to the Gentile world. He was the principal figure in the history of the early Christian Church, but was soon eclipsed by the overpowering presence and zeal of Paul. Tradition, indeed, has something to tell of him, but from it little of trustworthy can be gathered except that he finished his career by martyrdom in the city of Rome. This Apostle is represented in Christian art as an old man, bald-headed, with a flowing beard, dressed in a white mantle, and holding a scroll in his hand, his attributes being the keys, and a sword in symbol of his martyrdom.
Peter, the First Epistle of, addressed especially to Jewish Christians in certain churches of Asia Minor, the members of which were suffering persecution at the hands of their adversaries as evil-doers; was written to exhort them to rebut the charge by a life of simple well-doing, and to comfort them under it with the promise of the return of the Lord.
Peter, the Second Epistle Of, addressed to all who anywhere bore the Christian name; appears to have been written not long before his death to counteract certain fatal forms of error, at once doctrinal and practical, that had already begun to creep into the Church, and against which we meet with the same warnings in the Epistle of Jude, the doctrinal error being the denial of Christ as Lord, and the practical the denial of Him as the way, the truth, and the life, to the peril of the forfeiture of eternal life.
Peter, the Wild Boy, a savage creature of 13 years of age, found in 1725 in a forest of Hanover, who was accustomed to walk on all fours, and climb trees like a squirrel, living on wild plants, grass, and moss, and who could not be weaned from these habits, or taught to speak more than a syllable or two; he wore a brass collar with his name on it; at length refused all food, and died in 1786.
Peter Martyr, 1, a Dominican notorious for his severity as a member of the Inquisition, murdered by a mob at Como in 1252, became the patron saint of the Inquisition. 2, A Protestant reformer, born at Florence, became a monk and abbot at Lucca, from which, on embracing the doctrines of the Reformation, he was forced to flee, first to Switzerland and then to England in the reign of Edward VI., but had to retreat from thence also on the accession of Mary to Strasburg, and at length to Zurich, where he died (1500-1562). 3, A historian, born at Arona, rose to become bishop of Jamaica, wrote on the discovery of America, d. 1525.
Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, son of the Czar Alexei, born at Moscow; succeeded his half-brother Feodor in 1682, but was forced for a time to share the throne with his half-sister Sophia, acting as regent for her brother Ivan; conscious of his imperfect education, he chose a Genoese named Lefort as his preceptor, and after some years' careful training he deposed Sophia, and entered Moscow as sole ruler in 1689; with the help of Lefort and Patrick Gordon, a Scotsman, he proceeded to raise and discipline an army on the European model, and determined also to construct a navy; to reach the sea he made war on the Turks, and possessed himself of the port of Azov, at the mouth of the Don; hither he invited skilled artificers from Austria, Venice, Prussia, and Holland, and a navy was built; from 1697 to 1698 he visited the countries on the Baltic and England, acquiring vast stores of information, working as a shipwright in the Dutch yards, and finally taking back with him an army of mechanics; on his return he vigorously reformed the Russian press, schools, and church, introduced European manners and literature, and encouraged foreign trade; desirous now of an opening on the Baltic, he began in 1700 a long contest with Sweden, marked first by many defeats, notably that of Narva, then the seizure of Ingria, and founding of the new capital St. Petersburg 1703, the victory of Pultowa 1712, seizure of the Baltic provinces and part of Finland 1713, and finally by the Peace of 1721, which ceded the conquered territories to Russia; in 1711 the Turks had recovered Azov; in 1722 war with Persia secured him three Caspian provinces; Peter pursued a vigorous and enlightened policy for the good of Russia, but his disposition was often cruel; his son Alexei was put to death for opposing his reforms, and on his own death he was succeeded by the Empress Catherine I., the daughter of a peasant, who had been his mistress, and whom he had married in 1712 (1672-1725).
Peter the Hermit, a monk, born in Amiens, of good family, who is credited with having by his preaching kindled the enthusiasm in Europe which led to the first Crusade; he joined it himself as the leader of an untrained rabble, but made a poor figure at the siege of Antioch, where he was with difficulty prevented from deserting the camp; he afterwards founded a monastery near Liège, where he died (1050-1115).
Peterborough (25), an English cathedral city, on the Nen, partly in Huntingdonshire and partly in Northamptonshire, on the edge of the Fen country, 76 m. N. of London; has an old town-hall, manufactures of farm implements, trade in malt and coal, and is a great railway centre; the cathedral is one of the finest in Britain, of very varied architecture, was restored and reopened afterwards in 1890.
Peterborough, Charles Mordaunt, Earl of, saw some active service as a volunteer in Charles II.'s navy, and on the accession of James II. threw himself into politics as an opponent of the king; William III. showed him great favour; he was of the Queen's Council of Regency when William was in Ireland, but imprudent intriguing brought him a short confinement in the Tower in 1697; the war of the Spanish Succession was the opportunity which brought him fame; appointed to the command of the British and Dutch forces, which fought for Charles of Austria, he reduced Barcelona 1705, and Valencia 1706; retook Barcelona from the French, and but for Charles's hindrance would have entered Madrid; differences with other generals led to his recall in 1707; the rest of his life was spent in retirement; he was the friend of Pope, and held by him in genuine esteem; he died in Lisbon (1658-1735).
Peterhead (12), a seaport on the E. coast of Aberdeenshire, 30 m. NE. of Aberdeen; built irregularly of reddish granite; has a free library and museum, and is the seat of a convict prison; the chief industry is herring-fishing; there are two harbours, and a third, a great harbour of refuge, is in course of construction.
Peterhof (14), a town on the Gulf of Finland, 18 m. W. of St. Petersburg, with a palace of the Czar built in 1711 by Peter the Great.
Peterloo, a name, suggested by Waterloo, given to an insurrectionary gathering in 1819 of workers in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, to demand Parliamentary reform, and which was dispersed by the military to the sacrifice of 13 lives and the wounding of 600, a proceeding which excited wide-spread indignation, and contributed to promote the cause which it was intended to defeat.
Peter's, St., church at Rome, is built, it is alleged, over the tomb of St. Peter, and on the site of the basilica erected by Constantine and Helena in 306. The original structure after falling into decay was begun to be rebuilt in 1450, and finally consecrated by Urban XIII. in 1626. It is the largest and grandest church in Christendom, covers an area of over 26,000 square yards, the interior of it in length being 206 yards, the transept 150 yards, the nave 150, and the dome 465. It contains thirty altars, and is adorned with numerous statues and monuments.
Peter's Pence, an annual tribute of a silver penny per household in England to support the chair of St. Peter at Rome, and which continued more or less to be levied from the end of the 8th century till the days of Elizabeth, when it ceased. The payment has been revived since 1848 in Britain, France, and Belgium in compensation to the Pope for loss of his territorial possessions.
Peterwardein (4), a strong Austrian fortress on the right bank of the Danube, near the Servian frontier, 40 m. NW. of Belgrade; stands among unhealthy marshes.
Pétion de Villeneuve, Jérôme, born at Chartres; figured in the French Revolution as a zealous republican, member of the Tiers État, one of the commission to reconduct the royal family from Varennes; was mayor of Paris in the year of the September massacres, 1792; was first President of the Convention, and, though his influence was declining, member of the first Committee of Defence, 1793; his attack on Robespierre proving unsuccessful he committed suicide; his body was afterwards found on the Landes of Bordeaux half devoured by wolves; was surnamed the “Virtuous,” as Robespierre the “Incorruptible”; was of the Girondist party; had “unalterable beliefs, not hindmost of them,” says Carlyle, “belief in himself” (1783-1793).
Petite Nature, a French term applied to pictures containing figures less than life-size, but with the effect of life-size.
Petition of Right, a petition presented to Charles I. by the Commons in 1628, and that became law by the king's acceptance of it. It sought for and obtained the abolition of certain grievances which the country unconstitutionally suffered from, such as taxation or levying of money without consent of Parliament, imprisonment without cause shown, billeting of troops, and recourse to martial law in a time of peace. This petition Charles I. would at first fain have evaded, but the Commons would be satisfied with nothing less than its acceptance entire.
Petöfi, Sandor, celebrated Magyar poet and patriot, born in the county of Pesth, of poor parents; first announced himself as a poet in 1844; wrote a number of war-songs; fought in the cause of the revolution of 1848, and fell in the battle of Schässburg; his poetry inaugurated a new era in the literature of his country (1823-1849).
Petra, a ruined city, and once the rock capital of Edom, and afterwards of Arabia Petræa; was a place of some importance at one time as a commercial centre; the name Petra signifies rock.
Petrarch, Francesco, the famous Italian lyric poet, born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, whither his father had gone when exiled with Dante from Florence; spent his youth in Avignon; intended for the profession of law, devoted his time to the study of Cicero and Virgil; met Laura in the church of St. Clare there in 1327, a lady of surpassing beauty; conceived a passion for her which she could not return, and wrote sonnets in praise of her, which immortalised both himself and her; after travel in France and Germany he retired in 1337 to the valley of Vaucluse, where he composed the most of his poems, and his reputation reached its height in 1341, when he was crowned laureate in the Capitol of Rome; he was in Italy when tidings reached him of the death of Laura in 1348, on the anniversary of the day when he first met her, upon which he gave expression to his feelings over the event in a touching note of it in his Virgil; we find him again at Rome in 1350, and after moving from place to place settled in Arqua in 1370, where he died; his Latin works are numerous, and include an epic on the Second Punic war, Eclogues, Epistles in verse, and Letters of value giving the details of his life; his fame rests on his lyrics; by those alone he still lives, and that more from the finished art in which they are written than from any glow of feeling they kindle in the reader's heart (1304-1374).
Petri, Laurentius, a Swedish Reformer; was a disciple of Luther; became professor of Theology and first Protestant archbishop of Upsala, and superintended the translation of the Bible into Swedish (1499-1573).
Petrie, Flinders, Egyptologist, son of an Australian explorer; after explorations at Stonehenge, surveyed the pyramids and temples of Ghizeh in 1881-82; excavated for the Egyptian Exploration Fund Nankratis, Am, and Defenneh; has achieved many other important works of the kind, and issued a popular work, “Ten Years' Diggings in Egypt”; b. 1853.
Petrie, George, Irish archæologist, born in Dublin, of Scottish parentage; bred to art; executed Irish landscapes, but is best known for his “Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland,” a work of no small interest (1790-1866).
Petroleum, is the common name of a series of rock oils found in large quantities in the United States and Canada, near Rangoon, and in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea. The oil issues from the rocks, or is drawn from subterranean reservoirs, where its presence is supposed to result from natural distillation of vegetable and animal substances, and after refining, put in the market as benzoline, paraffin, and lubricating oil. It is extensively used in the industries, and has been applied as fuel to steamships.
Pétroleuse, was a name given to certain Parisian women of the Commune of 1871, who poured petroleum on the Hôtel de Ville and other buildings to burn them.
Petronius, a Roman satirist and accomplished voluptuary at the court of Nero, and the director-in-chief of the imperial pleasures; accused of treason, and dreading death at the hands of the emperor his master, he opened his veins, and by bandaging them bled slowly to death, showing the while the same frivolity as throughout his life; he left behind him a work, extant now only in fragments, but enough to expose the abyss of profligacy in which the Roman world was then sunk at that crisis of its fate; d. 63.
Pettie, John, painter, born at Edinburgh; his works, chiefly historical, were numerous, and of a high character (1839-1893).
Petty, Sir William, political economist, born in Hampshire; was a man of versatile genius, varied attainments, and untiring energy; was skilled in medicine, in music, in mechanics, and in engineering, as well as economics, to which especially he contributed by his pen (1623-1687).
Petty Jury, a jury of 12 elected to try a criminal case after a true bill against the accused has been found by a Grand Jury.
Petty Officers, officers in the navy, consisting of four grades, and corresponding in function and responsibility to non-commissioned officers in the army.
Petty Sessions, name given to sessions of justices of the peace to try small cases without a jury.
Peutinger, Conrad, an Augsburg antiquary, left at his death a 13th-century copy of a 3rd-century map of the Roman military roads, now in the Imperial Library at Vienna, known as the “Tabula Peutingeriana” (1465-1547).
Pfäfers, hot springs near a village of the same name in the Swiss canton of St. Gall; have been in use for 800 years.
Pfahlbauten, lake dwellings of prehistoric date in Switzerland.
Pfalz, the German name for the Palatinate.
Pfeiffer, Ida, a celebrated traveller, born in Vienna; being separated from her husband, and having completed the education of her two sons and settled them in life, commenced her career of travel in 1842, in which year she visited Palestine, in 1845 visited Scandinavia, in 1846 essayed a voyage round the world by Cape Horn, in 1851 a second by the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1856 an expedition to Madagascar, returning at the end of each to Vienna and publishing accounts of them (1797-1858).
Pffleiderer, Otto, a philosophical theologian, born in Würtemberg, professor at Jena, and afterwards at Berlin; has written on religion, the philosophy of it and sundry developments of it, in an able manner, as well as lectured on it in Edinburgh in connection with the Gifford trust, on which occasion he was bold enough to overstep the limits respected by previous lecturers between natural and revealed religion, to the inclusion of the latter within his range; b. 1830.
Pforzheim (29), manufacturing town in Baden, in the N. of the Black Forest; manufactures gold and silver ornaments, and has chemical and other factories.
Phædrus, a Latin fabulist, of the age of Augustus, born in Macedonia, and settled in Rome; originally a slave, was manumitted by Augustus; his fables, 97 in number, were written in verse, and are mostly translations from Æsop, the best of them such as keep closely to the original.
Phaëthon (i. e. the shining one, and so called from his father), the son of Helios (q. v.); persuaded his father to allow him for one day to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens, but was too weak to check the horses, so that they rushed off their wonted track and nearly set the world on fire, whereupon Zeus transfixed him with a thunderbolt, metamorphosed his sisters who had yoked the horses for him into poplars and their tears into amber.
Phalanstery, a body of people living together on the Communistic principle of Fourier; also the building they occupy.
Phalanx, among the Greeks a body of heavy infantry armed with long spears and short swords, standing in line close behind one another, generally 8 men deep, the Macedonian being as much as 16; its movements were too heavy, and it was dashed in pieces before the legions of Rome to its extinction; it was superseded by the Roman legion.
Phalaris, a tyrant of Agrigentum, in Sicily, in the 6th century, who is said, among other cruelties, to have roasted the victims of his tyranny in a brazen bull which bears his name; the “Letters of Phalaris,” at one time ascribed to him, have been proved to be spurious.
Phallus, a symbol of the generative power of nature, being a representation of the male organ of generation, and associated with rites and ceremonies of nature-worship in the early stages of civilised life, and the worship of which was supposed to have a magic influence in inducing fertility among the flocks and herds, as well as in the soil of the earth.
Pharamond, a Knight of the Round Table, and the reputed first king of the Franks.
Pharaoh, a name, now proper, now common, given in the Old Testament to the kings of Egypt, identified with that of the sun-god Phra, and applied to the king as his representative on earth; some 10 of the name occur in the Bible, and it is matter of difficulty often to distinguish one from another.
Pharisees (i. e. Separatists), a sect of the Jews who adopted or received this name because of the attitude of isolation from the rest of the nation which they were compelled to assume at the time of their origin. This was some time between the years 165 and 105 B.C., on their discovery that the later Maccabæan chiefs were aiming at more than religious liberty, and in their own interests contemplating the erection of a worldly kingdom that would be the death of the theocratic, which it was the purpose of Providence they should establish; this was the separate ground which they at first assumed alone, but they in the end carried the great body of the nation along with them. They were scrupulously exact in their interpretation and observance of the Jewish law as the rule to regulate the life of the Jewish community in every department, and were the representatives of that legal tendency which gave character to the development of Judaism proper during the period which elapsed between the date of the Captivity and the advent of Christianity. The law they observed, however, was not the written law as it stood, but that law as expounded by the oral law of the Scribes, as the sole key to its interpretation, so that their attitude to the Law of Moses was pretty much the same as that of the Roman Catholics and the High Churchmen in relation to the Scriptures generally, and they were thus at length the representatives of clericalism as well as legalism in the Jewish Church, and in doing so they took their ground upon a principle which is the distinctive article of orthodox Judaism in the matter to the present day. In the days of Christ they stood in marked opposition to the Sadducees (q. v.) both in their dogmatic views and their political principles. As against them, on the dogmatic side, they believed in a spiritual world and in an established moral order, and on the political their rule was to abstain from politics, except in so far as they might injuriously affect the life and interests of the nation; but at that time they had degenerated into mere formalists, whose religion was a conspicuous hypocrisy, and it was on this account and their pretensions to superior sanctity that they incurred the indignation and exposed themselves to the condemnation of Christ.
Pharos, an island of ancient Egypt, near Alexandria, on which the first lighthouse was erected by Ptolemy Philadelphus in 48 B.C.
Pharsalia, a district in the N. of Greece, the southern portion of the modern province of Larissa; was the scene of Cæsar's victory over Pompey, 48 B.C.
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, American authoress, born at Andover; wrote “Gates Ajar” and other popular stories, is a great advocate, by lecturing and otherwise, for social reform and the emancipation of women; b. 1844.
Phelps, Samuel, an English actor, born in Devonport; made his début as Shylock in London at the Haymarket in 1837, achieved his greatest successes in Sadler's Wells by his representation of Shakespeare's plays and the works of eminent dramatists of the 18th century; was distinguished in comedy as well as tragedy, in which last he primarily appeared and established his fame (1804-1878).
Pherecydes, an ancient Greek philosopher, born in Syros in 6th century B.C.; distinguished as having had Pythagoras among his pupils, and believed to have been the author of many of the doctrines promulgated by his disciple and named Pythagorean.
Phidias, the greatest sculptor and statuary of ancient Greece, born at Athens; flourished in the time of Pericles, and was appointed by him to direct the works of art projected to the beautifying of the city, and expressly commissioned to execute certain of these works himself; the chief work that he superintended was the erection of the Parthenon, much of which he himself adorned; and of the statues he executed the most famous were one of Athena of ivory and gold for the Parthenon, and a colossal one of Zeus, his masterpiece, also of ivory and gold, for Olympia; accused of having appropriated some of the gold intended for the statue of Athena he was acquitted, but was afterwards charged with impiety for carving his own likeness and that of Pericles on the shield of the goddess, and was thrown into prison, where he died, 432 B.C.
Philadelphia (1,293), largest city in Pennsylvania, on the Delaware, 100 m. from the sea and 90 m. by rail SW. of New York; is the third city in the Union in population, manufactures, and commerce, regularly built with plain substantial dwelling-houses; recently more splendid public buildings have been erected, the town-hall, of white marble, is the second highest structure in the world; a masonic temple and Government offices of granite and the Mint are also fine buildings; there is a university and colleges of science, medicine, art, and music, many churches, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and many hospitals and charitable institutions; the industries include locomotive building, saw-making, woollen and cotton goods, sugar and oil refining, and chemical works; it trades largely in coal. Founded by William Penn in 1682, it was the central point of the War of Independence; the first Congress met here, and the Declaration of Independence was signed (1776) in a building still standing; here too the Federal Union was signed (1778) and the constitution drawn up (1787), and from 1790 to 1800 it was the capital of the United States.
Philador, François André, a celebrated composer and chess-player, born at Dreux; wrote a number of operas; in regard to chess his great maxim was “Pawns are the soul of chess”; fled at the time of the Revolution to London, where he died (1726-1795).
Philæ, an island of syenite stone in the Nile, near Assouan, in Nubia, 1200 ft. long and 50 ft. broad; is almost covered with ancient buildings of great beauty, among which is a temple of Isis, with a great gateway dating from 361 B.C., which was converted into a church in 577.
Philatory, a transparent reliquary to contain and exhibit the bones and relics of saints.
Philemon, Epistle to, a short letter by Paul to a member of the Church at Colossæ on behalf of a slave, Onesimus, who had deserted his service, gone off with some of his property, and taken refuge in Rome, but had been converted to Christ, and whom he begs not to manumit, but simply to receive back as a brother for his sake.
Philemon and Baucis, in the Greek mythology a pair of poor people who, in fond attachment to each other, lived in a small cottage in Phrygia by themselves and gave hospitality to gods in disguise when every other door was shut against them, and to whom, in the judgment that descended upon their inhospitable neighbours, the gods were propitious, and did honour by appointing them to priesthood, when they would rather have been servants, in a temple metamorphosed out of their cottage. Here they continued to minister to old age, and had but one prayer for themselves, that they might in the end die together; when as they sat at the door of the temple one day, bent with years, they were changed, he into an oak and she into a linden. This is Ovid's version of the story, to which he adds as the moral of it, “Those who piously honour the gods are themselves held in honour.”
Philip, an Indian chief whose father had been a staunch friend of the Pilgrim settlers, was himself friendly to the colonists, till in 1671 their encroachments provoked him to retaliation; after six years' fighting, in which many colonists perished and great massacres of Indians took place, he was defeated and slain, 1676.
Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, usurped the kingdom from the infant king Amyntas, his nephew and ward, in 360 B.C.; having secured his throne, he entered on a series of aggressive wars, making expeditions into Thrace and Thessaly; the siege of Olynthus brought him into conflict with Athens, the two cities being allies, and occasioned some of the most brilliant orations of Demosthenes; the successive appeals for his aid against their enemies by the Thebans and the Argives led him into Greece and into the Peloponnesus; in 339 B.C. a council of Greek cities appointed him commander-in-chief of their leagued forces in a projected war against the Locrians, but the Athenians and Thebans opposed his coming; the defeat of their armies at Chæronea, 338 B.C., placed all Greece at his feet; his next project was an expedition against Persia, but while preparations were on foot he was assassinated at Ægæ; a man of unbridled lust, he was an astute and unscrupulous politician, but of incomparable eloquence, energy, and military skill (382-336 B.C.).
Philip II., Philip-Augustus, king of France, shared the throne with his father, Louis VII., from 1179, and succeeded him as sole ruler in 1180; marrying Isabella of Hainault, he united the Capet and Carlovingian houses; his grand aim was to secure to himself some of the English possessions in France; his alliance with Richard of England in the third crusade ended in a quarrel; returning to France he broke his oath to Richard by bargaining with John for portions of the coveted territory; an exhausting war lasted till 1119; on Richard's death Philip supported Arthur against John in his claim to Anjou, Maine, and Touraine; after Arthur's murder, the capture of Château Gaillard in 1204 gave him possession of these three provinces with Normandy and part of Poitou; the victory of Bouvines 1214 secured his throne, and the rest of his reign was spent in internal reforms and the beautifying of Paris (1165-1223).
Philip IV., the Fair, king of France, succeeded his father Philip III. in 1285; by his marriage with Joanna of Navarre added Navarre, Champagne, and Brie to his realm; but the sturdy valour of the Flemish burghers at Courtrai on the “Day of Spurs” prevented the annexation of Flanders; his fame rests on his struggle and victory over the papal power; a tax on the clergy was condemned by Boniface VIII. in 1296; supported by his nobles and burghers Philip burnt the papal bull, imprisoned the legate, and his ambassador in Rome imprisoned the Pope himself; Boniface died soon after, and in 1305 Philip made Clement V. Pope; kept him at Avignon, and so commenced the seventy years' “captivity”; he forced Clement to decree the suppression of the Templars, and became his willing instrument in executing the decree; he died at Fontainebleau, having proved himself an avaricious and pitiless despot (1268-1314).
Philip VI., of Valois, king of France, succeeded Charles IV. in 1328; Edward III. of England contested his claim, contending that the Salic law, though it excluded females, did not exclude their male heirs; Edward was son of a daughter, Philip son of a brother, of Philip IV.; thus began the Hundred Years' War between France and England, 1337; the French fleet was defeated off Sluys in 1340, and the army at Crécy in 1346; a truce was made, when the war was followed by the Black Death; the worthless king afterwards purchased Majorca (1293-1350).
Philip II., king of Spain, only son of the Emperor Charles V.; married Mary Tudor in 1554, and spent over a year in England; in 1555 he succeeded his father in the sovereignty of Spain, Sicily, Milan, the Netherlands, Franche-Comté, Mexico, and Peru; a league between Henry II. of France and the Pope was overthrown, and on the death of Mary he married the French princess Isabella, and retired to live in Spain, 1559. Wedding himself now to the cause of the Church, he encouraged the Inquisition in Spain, and introduced it to the Netherlands; the latter revolted, and the Seven United Provinces achieved their independence after a long struggle in 1579; his great effort to overthrow Protestant England ended in the disaster of the Armada, 1588; his last years were embittered by the failure of his intrigues against Navarre, raids of English seamen on his American provinces, and by loathsome disease; he was a bigot in religion, a hard, unloved, and unloving man, and a foolish king; he fatally injured Spain by crushing her chivalrous spirit, by persecuting the industrious Moors, and by destroying her commerce by heavy taxation (1527-1598).
Philip V., grandson of Louis XIV., first Bourbon king of Spain; inherited his throne by the testament of his uncle Charles II. in 1700; the rival claim of the Archduke Charles of Austria was supported by England, Austria, Holland, Prussia, Denmark, and Hanover; but the long War of the Spanish Succession terminated in the peace of Utrecht, and left Philip his kingdom; after an unsuccessful movement to recover Sicily and Sardinia for Spain he joined England and France against the Emperor, and gained the former island for his son Charles III.; he died an imbecile at Madrid (1683-1746).
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was the fourth son of John the Good, king of France; taken captive at Poitiers 1356; on his return to France he received for his bravery the duchies of Touraine and Burgundy; on his brother's accession to the French throne as Charles V. he exchanged the former duchy for the hand of Margaret of Flanders, on the death of whose father he assumed the government of his territories; his wise administration encouraged arts, industries, and commerce, and won the respect and esteem of his subjects; he was afterwards Regent of France when Charles V. became imbecile (1342-1404).
Philip the Good, grandson of the above, raised the duchy to its zenith of prosperity, influence, and fame; he was alternately in alliance with England, and at peace with his superior, France; ultimately assisting in driving England out of most of her Continental possessions (1396-1467).
Philiphaugh, a battlefield on the Yarrow, 3 m. W. of Selkirk, was the scene of Leslie's victory over Montrose in 1645.
Philippi, a Macedonian city, was the scene of a victory gained in 42 B.C. by Octavianus and Antony over Brutus and Cassius, and the seat of a church, the first founded by St. Paul in Europe.
Philippians, Epistle to the, an Epistle of Paul written at Rome during his imprisonment there to a church at Philippi, in Macedonia, that had been planted by himself, and the members of which were among the first-fruits of his ministry in Europe. The occasion of writing it was the receipt of a gift from them, and to express the joy it gave him as a token of their affection. It is the least dogmatic of all his Epistles, and affords an example of the Apostle's statement of Christian truth to unbiased minds; one exhortation, however, shows he is not blind to the rise of an evil which has been the bane of the Church of Christ since the beginning, the spirit of rivalry, and this is evident from the prominence he gives in chapter ii. 5-8 to the self-sacrificing lowliness of Christ, and by the counsel he gives them in chapter iv. 8.
Philippic, the name originally applied to Demosthenes' three great orations against Philip of Macedon, then to Cicero's speeches against Mark Antony; now denotes any violent invective written or spoken.
Philippine Islands (8,500), a large and numerous group in the north of the Malay archipelago, between the China Sea and the Pacific, of which the largest, Luzon, and the next Mindanao, are both much greater than Ireland; are mountainous and volcanic, subject to eruptions and continuous earthquakes. In the N. of the group cyclones too are common. The climate is moist and warm, but fairly healthy; the soil is very fertile. Rice, maize, sugar, cotton, coffee, and tobacco are cultivated; the forests yield dye-woods, hard timber, and medicinal herbs, and the mines coal and iron, copper, gold, and lead. The chief exports are sugar, hemp, and tobacco. The aboriginal Negritoes are now few; half-castes are numerous; the population is chiefly Malayan, Roman Catholic at least nominally in religion, and speaking the Tagal or the Visayan language. Discovered by Magellan in 1521, who was killed on the island of Mactan; they were annexed by Spain in 1569, and held till 1898, when they fell to the Americans. The capital is Manilla (270), on the W. coast of Luzon; Laoag (37), San Miguel (35), and Banang (33) among the largest towns.
Philips, Ambrose, minor poet, born in Leicester, of good family; friend of Addison and Steele, and a Whig in politics; held several lucrative posts, chiefly in Ireland; wrote pastorals in vigorous and elegant verse, and also some short sentimental verses for children, which earned for him from Henry Carey the nickname of “Namby-Pamby” (1678-1749).
Philips, John, littérateur, born in Oxfordshire, author of “The Splendid Shilling,” an admirable burlesque in imitation of Milton, and a poem, “Cider,” an imitation of Virgil (1676-1708).
Philips, Katherine, poetess, born in London; was the daughter of a London merchant and the wife of a Welsh squire, a highly sentimental but worthy woman; the Society of Friendship, in which the members bore fancy names—hers, which also served her for a nom de plume, was Orinda—had some fame in its day, and brought her, as the foundress, the honour of a dedication from Jeremy Taylor; her work was admired by Cowley and Keats; she was a staunch royalist (1631-1664).
Philistine, the name given by the students in Germany to a non-university man of the middle-class, or a man without (university) culture, or of narrow views of things.
Philistines, a people, for long of uncertain origin, but now generally believed to have been originally emigrants from Crete, who settled in the plain, some 40 m. long by 15 broad, extending along the coast of Palestine from Joppa on the N. to the desert on the S., and whose chief cities were Ashdod, Askelon, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath; they were a trading and agricultural people, were again and again a thorn in the side of the Israelites, but gradually tamed into submission, so as to be virtually extinct in the days of Christ; their chief god was Dagon (q. v.).
Phillip, John, painter, born in Aberdeen; his early pictures illustrate Scottish subjects, his latest and best illustrate life in Spain, whither he had gone in 1851 for his health (1817-1867).
Phillips, Wendell, slavery abolitionist and emancipationist generally, born at Boston, U.S., and bred to the bar; was Garrison's aide-de-camp in the cause, and chief after his death (1811-1884).
Philo Judæus (i. e. Philo the Jew), philosopher of the 1st century, born in Alexandria; studied the Greek philosophy, and found in it, particularly the teaching of Plato, the rationalist explanation of the religion of Moses, which he regarded as the revelation to which philosophy was but the key; he was a man of great learning and great influence among his people, and was in his old age one of an embassy sent by the Jews of Alexandria in A.D. 40 to Rome to protest against the imperial edict requiring the payment of divine honours to the emperor; he identified the Logos of the Platonists with the Word in the New Testament.
Philocretes, a famous archer, who had been the friend and armour-bearer of Hercules who instructed him in the use of the bow, and also bequeathed his bow with the poisoned arrows to him after his death; he accompanied the Greeks to the siege of Troy, but one of the arrows fell on his foot, causing a wound the stench of which was intolerable, so that he was left behind at Lemnos, where he remained in misery 10 years, till an oracle declared that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules; he was accordingly sent for, and being healed of his wound by Æsculapius, assisted at the capture of the city.
Philomela, daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, and sister of Progne; she was the victim of an outrage committed by her brother-in-law Tereus, who cut out her tongue to prevent her exposing him, and kept her in close confinement; here she found means of communicating with her sister, when the two, to avenge the wrong, made away with Itys, Tereus' son, and served him up to his father at a banquet; the fury of Tereus on the discovery knew no bounds, but they escaped his vengeance, Philomela by being changed into a nightingale and Progne into a swallow.
Philopoemon, the head of the Achæcan League, born at Megalopolis, and the last of the Greek heroes; fought hard to achieve the independence of Greece, but having to struggle against heavy odds, was overpowered; rose from a sick-bed to suppress a revolt, was taken prisoner, thrown into a dungeon, and forced to drink poison (252-183 B.C.).
Philosophe, name for a philosopher of the school of 18th century Enlightenment, represented by the Encyclopedists (q. v.) of France; the class have been characterised by the delight they took in outraging the religious sentiment. See Aufklärung and Illumination, The.
Philosopher's Stone was, with the Elixir of Life, the object of the search of the mediæval alchemists. Their theory regarded gold as the most perfect metal, all others being removed from it by various stages of imperfection, and they sought an amalgam of pure sulphur and pure mercury, which, being more perfect still than gold, would transmute the baser metals into the nobler.
Philosophism, French, a philosophy such as the philosophers of France gave instances of, founded on the notion and cultivated in the belief that scientific knowledge is the sovereign remedy for the ills of life, summed up in two articles—first, that “a lie cannot be believed”; and second, that “in spiritual supersensual matters no belief is possible,” her boast being that “she had destroyed religion by extinguishing the abomination” (l'Infame).
Philosophy, the science of sciences or of things in general, properly an attempt to find the absolute in the contingent, the immutable in the mutable, the universal in the particular, the eternal in the temporal, the real in the phenomenal, the ideal in the real, or in other words, to discover “the single principle that,” as Dr. Stirling says, “possesses within itself the capability of transition into all existent variety and varieties,” which it presupposes can be done not by induction from the transient, but by deduction from the permanent as that spiritually reveals itself in the creating mind, so that a Philosopher is a man who has, as Carlyle says, quoting Goethe, “stationed himself in the middle (between the outer and the inner, the upper and the lower), to whom the Highest has descended and the Lowest mounted up, who is the equal and kindly brother of all.” “Philosophy dwells aloft in the Temple of Science, the divinity of the inmost shrine; her dictates descend among men, but she herself descends not; whoso would behold her must climb with long and laborious effort; may still linger in the forecourt till manifold trial have proved him worthy of admission into the interior solemnities.” Indeed philosophy is more than science (q. v.); it is a divine wisdom instilled into and inspiring a thinker's life. See Thinker, The.
Philoxenus, a Greek poet who lived at the court of Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse; condemned to prison for refusing to praise some verses of the tyrant, he was led forth to criticise others, but returned them as worse, begging the officers who handed them to lead him back, which when the tyrant was told, he laughed and released him.
Philpotts, Henry, bishop of Exeter, born in Bridgwater, a keen Tory and uncompromising High-Churchman, the chief actor in the celebrated Gorham case (q. v.), and noted for his obstinate opposition to political reform as the opening of the floodgates of democracy, which he dreaded would subvert everything that was dear to him (1778-1869).
Philtre, the name given to certain concoctions of herbs, often deleterious and poisonous, supposed to secure for the person administering it the love of the person to whom it was administered; these love potions were popular in the declining days of Greece and Rome, throughout mediæval Europe, and continue to be compounded to this day in the superstitious East.
Phiz, the pseudonym of Hablot K. Browne, the illustrator of the first edition of the “Pickwick Papers” of Dickens.
Phlegethon, in the Greek mythology a river in the lower world which flowed in torrents of fire athwart it, and which scorched up everything near it.
Phlogiston, a name given by the old chemists to an imaginary principle of fire, latent in bodies, and which escaped during combustion.
Phocas, a common soldier who raised himself by the aid of a faction to the throne of the East, and for twenty years defied attempts to dethrone him, but, being deserted by his party, was taken, subjected to torture, and beheaded in 610. “His reign,” says Gibbon, “afflicted Europe with ignominious peace, and Asia with desolating war.”
Phocion, a distinguished Athenian general and statesman, a disciple of Plato and Xenocrates; was wise in council as well as brave in war; opposed to the democracy of Athens, led on by Demosthenes in the frantic ambition of coping with Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander; and pled for a pacific arrangement with them; but having opposed war with Antipater, the successor of the latter, he was accused of treason, and condemned to drink hemlock; the Athenians afterwards repented of the crime, raised a bronze statue to his memory, and condemned his accuser to death.
Phocis, a province of ancient Greece, W. of Boeotia, and N. of the Gulf of Corinth; was traversed by the mountain range of Parnassus, and contained the oracle of Apollo at Delphi; allied to Athens in the Peloponnesian War, the Phocians were crushed in the “Sacred War” after ten years' fighting by Philip of Macedon, 346 B.C.
Phoebus (i. e. the radiant one), an epithet originally applied to Apollo for his beauty, and eventually to him as the sun-god.
Phoenicia, a country on the E. shore of the Levant, stretching inland to Mount Lebanon, at first extending only 20 m. N. of Palestine, but later embracing 200 m. of coast, with the towns of Tyre, Zarephath, Sidon, Gebal, and Arvad. The country comprised well-wooded hills and fertile plains, was rich in natural resources, richer still in a people of remarkable industry and enterprise. Of Semitic stock, they emerge from history with Sidon as ruling city about 1500 B.C., and reach their zenith under Tyre 1200-750, thereafter declining, and ultimately merging in the Roman Empire. During their prosperity their manufactures, purple dye, glass ware, and metal implements were in demand everywhere; they were the traders of the world, their nautical skill and geographical position making their markets the centres of exchange between East and West; their ships sailed every sea, and carried the merchandise of every country, and their colonists settled all over the Mediterranean, Ægean, and Euxine, and even beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in Africa, in Britain, and the countries on the Baltic. Her greatest colony was Carthage, the founding of which (823 B.C.) sapped the strength of the mother-country, and which afterwards usurped her place, and contended with Rome for the mastery of the world. But Phoenicia's greatest gift to civilisation was the alphabet, which she herself may have developed from Egyptian hieroglyphics, and which, with its great merit of simplicity, has, slightly altered, at length superseded among civilised nations every other system.
Phoenix, a bird which was fabled at the end of certain cycles of time to immolate itself in flames, and rise renewed in youth from the ashes. It has become the appropriate symbol of the death-birth that ever introduces a new era in the history of the world, and is employed by Carlyle in “Sartor” as symbol of the crisis through which the present generation is now passing, the conflagration going on appearing nowise as a mere conflagration, but the necessary preliminary of a new time, with the germinating principles of which it is pregnant.
Phoenix Park, a magnificent public park of 2000 acres in Dublin; is much used for military reviews; it was rendered notorious in 1882 through the murder by the “Invincibles” of Lord Frederick Cavendish, who had just been appointed Irish Secretary, and his subordinate, Thomas Burke.
Phonograph, an instrument invented by Edison (q. v.) in 1877 for recording and reproducing articulate sounds of the voice in speech or song, and to which the name of phonogram is given.
Photius, patriarch of Constantinople; was the great promoter of the schism on the question of the procession of the Holy Ghost, between the Eastern and the Western divisions of the Church, denying as he did, and erasing from the creed the filioque article (q. v.); d. 891.
Photogravure, a process of reproducing pictures from the negative of a photograph on a gelatine surface with the assistance of certain chemical preparations.
Photosphere, name given to the luminous atmosphere enveloping the sun.
Phototype, a block with impressions produced by photography from which engravings, &c., can be printed.
Phrenology claims to be a science in which the relation of the functions of mind to the material of the brain substance is observed. It asserts that just as speech, taste, touch, &c., have their centres in certain convolutions of the brain, so have benevolence, firmness, conscientiousness, &c., and that by studying the configuration of the brain, as indicated by that of the skull, a man's character may be approximately discovered. As a science it is usually discredited, and held to be unsupported by physiology, anatomy, and pathology. It is held as strongly militating against its claims that it takes no account of the convolutions of the brain that lie on the base of the skull. Its originators were Gall, Spurzheim, and Andrew and George Combe.
Phrygia, a country originally extending over the western shores of Asia Minor, but afterwards confined to the western uplands, where are the sources of the Hermus, Mæander, and Sangarius; was made up of barren hills where sheep famous for their wool grazed, and fertile valleys where the vine was cultivated; marble was quarried in the hills, and gold was found; several great trade roads from Ephesus crossed the country, among whose towns the names of Colosse and Laodicea are familiar; the Phrygians were an Armenian people, with a mystic orgiastic religion, and were successively conquered by Assyrians, Lydians, and Persians, falling under Rome in 43 B.C.
Phrygian Cap, a cap worn by the Phrygians, and worn in modern times as the symbol of freedom.
Phryné, a Greek courtesan, celebrated for her beauty; was the model to Praxiteles of his statue of Venus; accused of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries, she was brought before the judges, to whom she exposed her person, but who acquitted her of the charge, to preserve to the artists the image of divine beauty thus recognised in her.
Phtah, a god of ancient Egypt, worshipped at Memphis; identified with Osiris and Socaris, and placed by the Egyptians at the head of the dynasty of the kings of Memphis.
Phylacteries, strips of vellum inscribed with certain texts of Scripture, enclosed in small cases of calf-skin, and attached to the forehead or the left arm; originally connected with acts of worship, they were eventually turned to superstitious uses, and employed sometimes as charms and sometimes by way of ostentatious display.
Physiocratic School, a school of economists founded by Quesney, who regarded the cultivation of the land as the chief sources of natural well-being, and argued for legislation in behalf of it.
Piacenza (35), an old Italian city on the Po, 43 m. by rail SE. of Milan; has a cathedral, and among other churches the San Sisto, which contains the Sistine Madonna of Raphael, a theological seminary, and large library; it manufactures silks, cottons, and hats, and is a fortress of great strategical importance.
Pia-mater, a membrane which invests the brain and the spinal cord; it is of a delicate vascular tissue.
Piarists, a purely religious order devoted to the education of the poor, founded in 1599 by a Spanish priest, and confirmed in 1617 by Paul V., and again in 1621 by Gregory XV.
Piazzi, Italian astronomer; discovered in 1801 a planet between Mars and Jupiter, which he named Ceres, and the first of the planetoids recognised, as well as afterwards catalogued the stars (1746-1826).
Pibroch, the Highland bagpipe; also the wild, martial music it discourses.
Picador, a man mounted on horseback armed with a spear to incite the bull in a bull-fight.
Picardy, a province in the N. of France, the capital of which was Amiens; it now forms the department of Somme, and part of Aisne and Pas-de-Calais.
Piccolomini, the name of an illustrious family of science in Italy, of which Æneas Silvius (Pope Pius II.) was a member; also Octavio I., Duke of Amalfi, who distinguished himself, along with Wallenstein, in the Thirty Years' War at Lützen in 1632, at Nordlinger in 1634, and at Thionville in 1639; was one of the most celebrated soldiers that had command of the imperial troops (1599-1656).
Pichegru, Charles, French general, born at Arbois, in Jura; served with distinguished success in the army of the Republic on the Rhine and in the Netherlands, but sold himself to the Bourbons, and being convicted of treason, was deported to Cayenne, but escaped to England, where in course of time he joined the conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal against the First Consul, and being betrayed, was imprisoned in the Temple, where one morning after he was found strangled (1761-1804).
Pickwick, Samuel, the hero of Dickens's “Pickwick Papers,” a character distinguished for his general goodness and his honest simplicity.
Pico, one of the Azores, consisting of a single volcanic mountain, still in action; produces excellent wine.
Pico della Miran`dolo, a notable Italian champion of the scholastic dogma, who challenged all the learned of Europe to enter the lists with him and controvert any one of 900 theses which he undertook to defend, a challenge which no one, under ban of the Pope, dared accept; he was the last of the schoolmen as well as a humanist in the bud, and was in his lifetime, with an astonishing forecast of destiny, named the Phoenix (q. v.) (1463-1494).
Picquart, Colonel, French military officer; was distinguished as a student at the military schools; served in Algiers; became a captain in 1880; was appointed to the War Office in 1885; served with distinction in Tonquin; became professor at the Military School; rejoined the War Office in 1893, and was made head of the Intelligence Department in 1896; moved by certain discoveries affecting Esterhazy, began to inquire into the Dreyfus case, which led to his removal out of the way to Tunis; returned and exposed the proceedings against Dreyfus, with the result that a revision was demanded, and the charge confirmed; b. 1854.
Picton, Sir Thomas, British general, born in Pembroke; served in the West Indies, and became governor of Trinidad, also in the Walcheren Expedition, and became governor of Flushing, and in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, where he fell as he was leading his men to the charge (1758-1815).
Picts, a race of people now believed to be of Celtic origin, that from 296 to 844 inhabited the NE. of Caledonia from the Forth to the Pentland Firth, and were divided into northern and southern by the Grampians, while the W. of the country, or Argyll, was occupied by the Dalriads or Scots from Ireland, who eventually gained the ascendency over them, to their amalgamation into one nation.
Picts' Houses, the name popularly given to earth-houses (q. v.) in several parts of Scotland.
Pied Piper of Hamelin, the hero of an old German legend, had come to a German town, offered to clear it of the rats which infested it for a sum of money, but after executing his task was unrewarded, upon which he blew a blast on his magic pipe, the sound of which drew the children of the town into a cave, which he locked when they entered, and shut them up for ever.
Piedmont, a district of Italy, formerly a principality, ruled by the house of Savoy, surrounded by the Alps, the Apennines, and the river Ticino; occupies the W. end of the great fertile valley of the Po, a hilly region rich in vines and mulberries, and a mountainous tract with forests and grazing land intersected by lovely valleys, which send streams down into the Po; the people are industrious; textile manufactures are extensive, and agriculture is skilful; Turin, the largest town, was the capital of Italy 1859-1865; in the glens of the Cottian Alps the Vaudois or Waldenses, after much persecution, still dwell.
Pierce, Franklin, the fourteenth President of the United States, born in New Hampshire, was the lifelong friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne; bred to the bar; served in the Mexican War, and was elected President in 1852; his period of office was one of trouble, he supported the States' rights doctrine, and served with the South in the Civil War (1804-1869).
Pieria, a district in Macedonia E. of Olympus, inhabited by Thracians, and famous as the seat of the worship of the Muses and their birthplace, giving rise to the phrase Pierian Spring, as the source of poetic inspiration.
Pierides, the name given to the Muses from their fountain Pieria (q. v.).
Piers Plowman, Vision of, a celebrated satirical poem of the 14th century ascribed to Robert Langland.
Pietà (i. e. piety), the name given to a picture, the subject of which is the dead Christ in the embrace of his sorrowing mother, accompanied by sorrowing women and angels; that sculptured by Michael Angelo, in St. Peter's at Rome, representing the Virgin at the foot of the cross, and the dead Christ in her lap.
Pietermaritzburg (16), capital of Natal, 73 m. by rail N. of Durban; well situated on the Umgeni River, with fine streets, an ample water-supply, and a fine climate; has railroad connection with Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Charlestown. A third of the population consists of Kaffirs and coolies.
Pietists, the name given to a religious party that arose in Germany at the end of the 17th century, but without forming a separate sect; laid more stress on religious feeling than dogmatic belief, and who at length, as all who ground religion on mere feeling are apt to do, distinguished themselves more by a weak sentimentality than by a sturdy living faith.
Pietra Dura, a name given to the purest kind of Florentine mosaic work, consists of hard stones characterised by brilliancy of colour.
Pigeon English, a jargon used in commercial dealings with the Chinese, being a mixture of English, Portuguese, and Chinese.
Pig-Philosophy, the name given by Carlyle in his “Latter-Day Pamphlets,” in the one on Jesuitism, to the wide-spread philosophy of the time, which regarded the human being as a mere creature of appetite instead of a creature of God endowed with a soul, as having no nobler idea of well-being than the gratification of desire—that his only Heaven, and the reverse of it his Hell.
Pigwiggin, an elf in love with Queen Mab, who fights the jealous Oberon in furious combat.
Pilate, Pontius, Roman procurator of Judea and Samaria in the days of Christ, from A.D. 26 to 36; persuaded of the innocence of Christ when arraigned before his tribunal, would fain have saved Him, but yielded to the clamour of His enemies, who crucified Him; he protested before they led Him away by washing his hands in their presence that he was guiltless of His blood.
Pilatus, Mount, an isolated mountain at the W. end of Lake Lucerne, opposite the Rigi; is ascended by a mountain railway, and has hotels on two peaks. A lake below the summit is said to be the last receptacle of the body of Pontius Pilate, hence the adoption of the name of “Mons Pilatus.”
Pilcomayo, a tributary of the Rio Paraguay, in South America, which it joins after a course of 1700 miles from its source in the Bolivian Andes.
Pilgrimage of Grace, a rising in the northern counties of England in 1536 against the policy of Cromwell, Henry VIII.'s Chancellor, in regard to the temporalities of the Church, which, though concessions were made to it that led to its dispersion, broke out afresh with renewed violence, and had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
Pilgrim Fathers, the name given to the Puritans, some 100 in all, who sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower in 1620 and settled in Massachusetts, carrying with them “the life-spark of the largest nation on our earth.”
Pillar-Saints, a class of recluses, called Stylites, who, in early Christian times, retired from the world to the Syrian Desert, and, perched on pillars, used to spend days and nights in fasting and praying, in the frantic belief that by mortification of their bodies they would ensure the salvation of their souls; their founder was Simon, surnamed Stylites; the practice, which was never allowed in the West, continued down to the 12th century.
Pillars of Hercules. See Hercules, Pillars of.
Pillory, an obsolete instrument of punishment for centuries in use all over Europe, consisted of a platform, an upright pole, and at a convenient height cross-boards with holes, in which the culprit's neck and wrists were placed and fastened; so fixed he was exposed in some public place to the insults and noxious missiles of the mob. Formerly in England the penalty of forgery, perjury, &c., it became after the Commonwealth a favourite punishment for seditious libellers. It was last inflicted in London in 1830, and was abolished by law in 1837.
Piloty, Karl von, a modern German painter of the new Münich school, and professor of Painting at the Münich Academy; did portraits, but his masterpieces are on historical subjects, such as “Nero on the ruins of Rome,” “Galileo in Prison,” “The Death of Cæsar,” &c.; he was no less eminent as a teacher of art than as an artist (1826-1886).
Pilsen (50), a town in Bohemia, 67 m. SW. of Prague; has numerous industries, and rich coal and iron mines, and produces an excellent beer, which it exports in large quantities. It was an important place during the Thirty Years' War.
Pindar, the greatest lyric poet of Greece, and for virgin purity of imagination ranked by Ruskin along with Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Scott; born near Thebes, in Boeotia, of a musical family, and began his musical education by practice on the flute, while he was assisted in his art by the example of his countrywoman Corinna, who competed with and defeated him more than once at the public festivals; he was a welcome visitor at the courts of all the Greek princes of the period, and not the less honoured that he condescended to no flattery and attuned his lyre to no sentiment but what would find an echo in every noble heart; he excelled in every department of lyric poetry, hymns to the gods, the praises of heroes, pæans of victory, choral songs, festal songs and dirges, but of these only a few remain, his Epinikia, a collection of triumphal odes in celebration of the successes achieved at the great national games of Greece; he was not only esteemed the greatest of lyric poets by his countrymen, but is without a rival still; when Alexander destroyed Thebes he spared the house of Pindar (522-442 B.C.).
Pindar, Peter. See Wolcott, John.
Pindarees or Pindaris, a set of freebooters who at the beginning of the present century ravaged Central India and were the terror of the districts, but who under the governor-generalship of Hastings were driven to bay and crushed in 1817.
Pindus, Mount, is the range of mountains rising between Thessaly and Epirus, which forms the watershed of the country.
Pineal Gland, a small cone-shaped body of yellowish matter in the brain, the size of a pea, and situated in the front of the cerebellum, notable as considered by Descartes to be the seat of the soul, but is now surmised to be a rudimentary remnant of some organ, of vision it would seem, now extinct.
Pinel, Philippe, a French physician, distinguished for the reformation he effected, against no small opposition, in the treatment of the insane, leading to the abandonment everywhere of the cruel, inhuman methods till then in vogue (1745-1826).
Pinero, Arthur Wing, dramatic author, born in London; bred to law, took to the stage and the writing of plays, of which he has produced a goodly number; collaborated with Sir Arthur Sullivan and Mr. Comyns Carr in a romantic musical drama entitled “The Beauty Stone”; b. 1855.
Pinerolo (12), a town 23 m. SW. of Turin, now a fortress in an important military position, and in which the “Man with the Iron Mask” was imprisoned.
Pinkerton, John, a Scottish antiquary and historian, born in Edinburgh; was an original in his way, went to London, attracted the notice of Horace Walpole and Gibbon; died in Paris, poor and neglected (1758-1826).
Pinkie, a Scottish battlefield, near Musselburgh, Midlothian, where the Protector Somerset, in his expedition to secure the hand of Mary Stuart for Edward VI., defeated and slaughtered a Scottish army 1547.
Pinto, Mendez, a Portuguese traveller; wrote in his “Peregriniçam” an account of his marvellous adventures in Arabia, Persia, China, and Japan, extending over a period of 21 years (1527-1548), of which, amid much exaggeration, the general veracity is admitted (1510-1583).
Pinturicchio, Italian painter, born at Perugia; was assistant to Perugino (q. v.) when at work in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, did frescoes and panel paintings, one of the “Christ bearing the Cross” (1454-1513).
Pinzen, the name of two brothers, companions of Christopher Columbus, and one of whom, Vicente Yanez, discovered Brazil in 1500.
Piozzi, Hester, a female friend of Johnson under the name of Mrs. Thrale, after her first husband, a brewer in Southwark, whose home for her sake was the rendezvous of all the literary celebrities of the period; married afterwards, to Johnson's disgust, an Italian music-master, lived with him at Florence, and returned at his death to Clifton, where she died; left “Anecdotes of Johnson” and “Letters”; was authoress of “The Three Warnings” (1741-1821).
Pipe of Peace, a pipe offered by an American Indian to one whom he wishes to be on good terms with.
Piræus (36), the port of Athens 5 m. SW. of the city, planned by Themistocles, built in the time of Pericles, and afterwards connected with the city for safety by strong walls, which was destroyed by the Spartans at the end of the Peloponnesian War, but restored, to fall afterwards into neglect and ruins.
Pirano (9), a seaport of Austria, on the Adriatic, 12 m. SW. of Trieste; has salt-works in the neighbourhood, and manufactures glass, soap, &c.
Pirithous, king of the Lapithæ and friend of Theseus, on the occasion of whose marriage an intoxicated Centaur ran off with his bride Hippodamia, which gave rise to the famous fight between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ, in which Theseus assisted, and the former were defeated; on the death of Hippodamia, Pirithous ran off with Persephone and Theseus with Helen, for which both had to answer in the lower world before Pluto; Hercules delivered the latter, but Pluto would not release the former.
Pirke Aboth (i. e. sayings of the Fathers), the name given to a collection of aphorisms in the manner of Jesus the Son of Sirach by 60 doctors learned in the Jewish law, representative of their teaching, and giving the gist of it; they inculcate the importance of familiarity with the words of the Law.
Pirna (11), a town in Saxony, on the Elbe, 11 m. SE. of Dresden; has sandstone quarries in the neighbourhood which employ 8000 quarrymen.
Pisa (38), on the Arno, 49 m. by rail W. of Florence, is one of the oldest cities in Italy; formerly a port, the river has built up the land at its mouth so that the sea is now 4 m. off, and the ancient trade of Pisa has been transferred to Leghorn. There are a magnificent cathedral, rich in art treasures, a peculiar campanile of white marble which deviates 14 ft. from the perpendicular, known as the leaning tower of Pisa, several old and beautiful churches, a university, school of art, and library. Silks and ribbons are woven, and coral ornaments cut. In the 11th century Pisa was at the zenith of its prosperity as a republic, with a great mercantile fleet, and commercial relations with all the world. Its Ghibelline sympathies involved it in terrible struggles, in which it gradually sank till its fortunes were merged in those of Tuscany about 1550. The council of Pisa, 1409, held to determine the long-standing rival claims of Gregory XII. and Benedict XII. to the Papal chair, ended by adding a third claimant, Alexander V. Pisa was one of the twelve cities of ancient Etruria.
Pisano, Nicola, Italian sculptor and architect of Pisa; his most famous works are the pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa, and that for the Duomo at Siena, the last being the fountain in the piazza of Perugia (1206-1278).
Pisgah, a mountain range E. of the Lower Jordan, one of the summits of which is Mount Nebo, from which Moses beheld the Promised Land, and where he died and was buried.
Pishin (60), a district of South Afghanistan, N. of Quetta, occupied by the British since 1878 as strategically of importance.
Pisidia, a division of ancient Asia Minor, N. of Pamphilia, and traversed by the Taurus chain.
Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, was the friend of Solon and a relative; an able but an ambitious man; being in favour with the citizens presented himself one day in the Agora, and displaying some wounds he had received in their defence, persuaded them to give him a bodyguard of 50 men, which grew into a larger force, by means of which in 560 B.C. he took possession of the citadel and seized the sovereign power, from which he was shortly after driven forth; after six years he was brought back, but compelled to retire a second time; after 10 years he returned and made good his ascendency, reigning thereafter peacefully for 14 years, and leaving his power in the hands of his sons Hippias and Hipparchus; he was a good and wise ruler, and encouraged the liberal arts, and it is to him we owe the first written collection or complete edition of the poems of Homer (600-527 B.C.).
Pistoia (20), a town of N. Italy, at the foot of the Apennines, 21 m. NW. of Florence, with palaces and churches rich in works of art; manufactures iron and steel wares.
Pistol, Ancient, a swaggering bully and follower of Falstaff in the “Merry Wives of Windsor.”
Pistole, an obsolete gold coin of Europe, originally of Spain, worth some 16s. 2d.
Pit`aka` (lit. a basket), the name given to the sacred books of the Buddhists, and constituting collectively the Buddhistic code. See Tripitaka.
Pitaval, a French advocate, compiler of a famous collection of causes célèbres (1673-1743).
Pitcairn Island, a small volcanic island 2½ m. long and 1 broad, solitary, in the Pacific, 5000 m. E. of Brisbane, where, in 1790, nine men of H.M.S. Bounty who had mutinied landed with six Tahitians and a dozen Tahitian women; from these have sprung an interesting community of islanders, virtuous, upright, and contented, of Christian faith, who, having sent a colony to Norfolk Island, numbered in 1890 still 128.
Pitcairne, Archibald, Scottish physician and satirist, born at Edinburgh; studied theology and law, and afterwards at Paris, medicine; he practised in Edinburgh, and became professor at Leyden; returning, he acquired great fame in his native city; in medicine he published a treatise on Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood; being an Episcopalian and Jacobite, he wrote severe satires on all things Presbyterian, e. g. “Babel, or the Assembly, a Poem,” 1692 (1652-1713).
Pithom, a town of Rameses, one of the treasure-cities built by the children of Israel in Lower Egypt, now, as discovered by M. Naville, reduced to a small village between Ismailia and Tel-el-Kebir.
Pitman, Sir Isaac, inventor of the shorthand system which bears his name, born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire; his first publication was “Stenographic Sound-Hand” in 1837, and in 1842 he started the Phonetic Journal, and lectured extensively as well as published in connection with his system (1813-1897).
Pitrè, Giuseppe, eminent Italian folk-lorist, born at Palermo, after serving as a volunteer in 1860 under Garibaldi, and graduating in medicine in 1866, threw himself into the study of literature, and soon made the folk-lore of Italy, the special study of his life, and to which he has devoted himself with unsparing assiduity, the fruits from time to time appearing principally in two series of his works, one in 19 vols. and another in 10 vols.; b. 1841.
Pitris (i. e. Fathers), in the Hindu mythology an order of divine beings, and equal to the greatest of the gods, who, by their sacrifice, delivered the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun and kindled the stars, and in whose company the dead, who have like them lived self-sacrificingly, enter when they lay aside mortality. See Rev. vii. 14.
Pitacottie, Robert Lindsay of, proprietor in the 16th century of the Fifeshire estate name of which he bore, was the author of “The Chronicles of Scotland,” to which Sir Walter Scott owed so much; his work is quaint, graphic, and, on the whole, trustworthy.
Pitt, William. See Chatham, Earl of.
Pitt, William, English statesman, second son of Lord Chatham, born near Bromley, Kent, grew up a delicate child in a highly-charged political atmosphere, and studied with such diligence under the direction of his father and a tutor that he entered Cambridge at 14; called to the bar in 1780, he speedily threw himself into politics, and contested Cambridge University in the election of 1781; though defeated, he took his seat for the pocket burgh of Appleby, joined the Shelburne Tories in opposition to North's ministry, and was soon a leader in the House; he supported, but refused to join, the Rockingham Ministry of 1782, contracted his long friendship with Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville, and became an advocate of parliamentary reform; his first office was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Shelburne; his reputation steadily rose, but on Shelburne's resignation he refused the Premiership, and went into opposition against the Portland, Fox, and North coalition; that minority being defeated (1783) on their Indian policy by the direct and unconstitutional interference of the king, he courageously formed a government with a majority of 100 against him; refusing to yield to adverse votes, he gradually won over the House and the country, and the dissolution of 1784 gave a majority of 120 in his favour, and put him in office, one of England's strongest ministers; during his long administration, broken only for one month in 20 years, he greatly raised the importance of the Commons, stamped out direct corruption in the House, and abolished many sinecures; he revised taxation, improved the collection of revenue and the issue of loans, and set the finances in a flourishing condition; he reorganised the government of India, and aimed strenuously to keep England at peace; but his abandonment of parliamentary reform and the abolition of the slave-trade suggests that he loved power rather than principles; his Poor-Law schemes and Sinking Fund were unsound; he failed to appreciate the problems presented by the growth of the factory system, or to manage Ireland with any success; on the outbreak of the French Revolution he failed to understand its significance, did not anticipate a long war, and made bad preparations and bad schemes; his vacillation in Irish policy induced the rebellion of 1798; by corrupt measures he carried the legislative union of 1801, but the king refused to allow the Catholic emancipation he promised as a condition; Viscount Melville was driven from the Admiralty on a charge of malversation, his own health broke down, and the victory of Trafalgar scarcely served to brighten his closing days; given to deep drinking, and culpably careless of his private moneys, he yet lived a pure, simple, amiable life; with an overcharged dignity, he was yet an attractive man and a warm friend; England has had few statesmen equal to him in the handling of financial and commercial problems, and few orators more fluent and persuasive than the great peace minister.
Pitt Diamond, a diamond brought from Golconda by the grandfather of the elder Pitt, who sold it to the king of France; it figured at length in the hilt of the State sword of Napoleon, and was carried off by the Prussians at Waterloo.
Pittacus, one of the seven sages of Greece, born at Mitylene, in Lesbos, in the 7th century B.C.; celebrated as a warrior, a statesman, a philosopher, and a poet; expelled the tyrants from Mitylene, and held the supreme power for 10 years after by popular vote, and resigned on the establishment of social order; two proverbs are connected with his name: “It is difficult to be good,” “Know the fit time.”
Pittsburg (321), second city of Pennsylvania, is 350 m. by rail W. of Philadelphia, where the junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela Rivers forms the Ohio; the city extends for 10 miles along the rivers' banks, and climbs up the surrounding hills; there are handsome public buildings and churches, efficient schools, a Roman Catholic college, and a Carnegie library; domestic lighting and heating and much manufacture is done by natural gas, which issues at high pressure from shallow borings in isolated districts 20 m. from the city; standing in the centre of an extraordinary coal-field—the edges of the horizontal seams protrude on the hillsides—it is the largest coal-market in the States; manufactures include all iron goods, steel and copper, glassware, and earthenware; its position at the eastern limit of the Mississippi basin, its facilities of transport by river and rail—six trunk railroads meet here—give it enormous trade advantages; its transcontinental business is second in volume only to Chicago; in early times the British colonists had many struggles with the French for this vantage point; a fort built by the British Government in 1759, and called after the elder Pitt, was the nucleus of the city.
Pityriasis, a skin eruption attended with branlike desquamation.
Pius, the name of nine Popes, of which only six call for particular mention: P. II., Pope from 1458 to 1464, was of the family of the Piccolomini, and is known to history as Æneas Sylvius, and under which name he did diplomatic work in Britain and Germany; as Pope he succeeded Callistus III.; he was a wily potentate, and is distinguished for organising a crusade against the Turks as well as his scholarship; the works which survive him are of a historical character, and his letters are of great value. P. IV., from 1559 to 1563, was of humble birth; during his popehood the deliberations of the Council of Trent were brought to a close, and the Tridentine Creed was named after him. P. V., Pope 1566 to 1572, also of humble birth, was severe in his civil and ecclesiastical capacity, both in his internal administration and foreign relationships, and thought to browbeat the world back into the bosom of Mother Church; issued a bull releasing Queen Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance; but the great event of his reign, and to which he contributed, was the naval victory over the Turks at Lepanto in 1571. P. VI., Pope from 1775 to 1799; the commencement of his popehood was signalised by beneficent measures for the benefit of the Roman city, but he was soon in trouble in consequence of encroachments on Church privileges in Austria and the confiscation of all Church property in France, which ended, on his resisting, to still further outrages, in his capture by the French under Bonaparte and his expatriation from Rome. P. VII., Pope from 1800 to 1823, concluded a concordat with France, crowned Napoleon emperor at Paris, who thereafter annexed the papal territories to the French empire, which were in part restored to him only after Napoleon's fall; he was a meek-spirited man, and was much tossed about in his day. P. IX., or Pio Nono, from 1846 to 1878, was a “reforming” Pope, and by his concessions awoke in 1848 a spirit of revolution, under the force of which he was compelled to flee from Rome, to return again under the protection of French bayonets against his own subjects, to devote himself to purely ecclesiastical affairs; in 1854 he promulgated the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and in 1869 the Infallibility of the Pope; upon the outbreak of the Franco-German War in 1871 the French troops were withdrawn and Victor Emmanuel's troops entered the city; Pius retired into the Vatican, where he lived in seclusion till his death.
Pix, the name of a little chest in which the consecrated host is kept in the Roman Catholic Church. See Pyx.
Pixies, Devonshire Robin Goodfellows, said to be the spirits of infants who died unbaptized.
Pizarro, Francisco, the conqueror of Peru, born at Truxillo, in Spain, the son of a soldier of distinction; received no education, but was of an adventurous spirit, and entered the army; embarked with other adventurers to America, and having distinguished himself in Panama, set out by way of the Pacific on a voyage of discovery along with another soldier named Almagra; landed on the island of Gallo, on the coast of Peru, and afterwards returned with his companion to Spain for authority to conquer the country; when in 1529 he obtained the royal sanction he set sail from Spain with three ships in 1531, and on his arrival at Peru found a civil war raging between the two sons of the emperor, who had just died; Pizarro saw his opportunity; approached Atahualpa, the victorious one, now become the reigning Inca, with overtures of peace, was admitted into the interior of the country; invited him to a banquet, had him imprisoned, and commenced a wholesale butchery of his subjects, upon which he forced Atahualpa to disclose his treasures, and then put him perfidiously to death; his power, by virtue of the mere terror he inspired, was now established, and he might have continued to maintain it, but a contest having arisen between him and his old comrade Almagro, whom after defeating he put to death, the sons and friends of the latter rose against him, seized him in his palace at Lima, and took away his life (1476-1541).
Plague, The, is a very malignant kind of highly contagious fever, marked by swellings of the lymphatic glands. From the development of purple patches due to subcutaneous hæmorrhages the European epidemic of 1348-50 was called the Black Death. A quarter of the European population perished on that occasion. Other visitations devastated London in 1665, Northern Europe 1707-14, Marseilles and Provence 1720-22, and South-East Russia 1878-79. The home of the Plague was formerly Lower Egypt, Turkey, and the shores of the Levant. From these it has been absent since 1844. Its home since then has been in India, where it has assumed epidemic form 1836-38 and 1896-99.
Plain, The, the name given to the Girondists or Moderate party in the French National Convention, in contrast with the Mountain (q. v.) or Jacobin party.
Planché, James Robinson, antiquary and dramatist, born in London, of French descent; author of a number of burlesques; an authority on heraldry and costumes; he produced over 200 pieces for the stage, and held office in the Heralds' Court (1796-1880).
Planetoids, the name given to a number of very small planets revolving between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, originally called Asteroids, all of recent discovery, and the list, amounting to some 400, as yet made of them understood to be incomplete. They are very difficult of discovery, many of them from the smallness of their size and their erratic movements.
Planets, bodies resembling the earth and of different sizes, which revolve in elliptical orbits round the sun, and at different distances, the chief of them eight in number, two of them, viz., Mercury and Venus, revolving in orbits interior to that of the earth, and five of them, viz., Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, exterior, the whole with the planetoids (q. v.) and comets constituting the solar system.
Plantagenets, the name attached to a dynasty of kings of England, who reigned from the extinction of the Norman line to the accession of the Tudor, that is, from the beginning of Henry II.'s reign in 1154 to the end of Richard III.'s on Bosworth Field in 1458. The name was adopted by Geoffrey of Anjou, the husband of Matilda, the daughter of Henry I., whose badge was a sprig of broom (which the name denotes), and which he wore in his bonnet as descended from the Earl of Anjou, who was by way of penance scourged with twigs of it at Jerusalem.
Plantin, Christophe, a printer of Antwerp, born near Tours, in France; celebrated for the beauty and accuracy of the work that issued from his press, the most notable being the “Antwerp Polyglot”; he had printing establishments in Leyden and Paris, as well as Antwerp, all these conducted by sons-in-law (1514-1589).
Plassey, a great battlefield in Bengal, now swept away by changes in the course of the river, scarcely 100 m. N. of Calcutta; was the scene of Clive's victory in 1757 with 800 Europeans and 2200 unreliable native troops over Suraj-ud-Dowlah, the ruler of Bengal, which laid that province at the feet of Britain, and led to the foundation of the British Empire in India.
Plaster of Paris, a compound of lime, sand, and water used for coating walls, taking casts, and forming moulds.
Platæa, a city of ancient Greece, in western Boeotia, neighbour and ally of Athens, suffered greatly in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. It was destroyed by the Persians 480 B.C., by the Peloponnesian forces 429 B.C., and again by the Thebans 387 B.C. Philip of Macedon restored the exiles to their homes in 338 B.C.
Plato, the great philosopher, born in Athens, of noble birth, the year Pericles died, and the second of the Peloponnesian War; at 20 became a disciple of Socrates, and passed eight years in his society; at 30, after the death of Socrates, quitted Athens, and took up his abode at Megara; from Megara he travelled to Cyrene, Egypt, Magna Græcia, and Sicily, prolonging his stay in Magna Græcia, and studying under Pythagoras, whose philosophy was then at its prime, and which exercised a profound influence over him; after ten years' wandering in this way he, at the age of 40, returned to Athens, and founded his Academy, a gymnasium outside the city with a garden, which belonged to his father, and where he gathered around him a body of disciples, and had Aristotle for one of his pupils, lecturing there with undiminished mental power till he reached the advanced age of 81; of his philosophy one can give no account here, or indeed anywhere, it was so unsectarian; he was by pre-eminence the world-thinker, and though he was never married and left no son, he has all the thinking men and schools of philosophy in the world as his offspring; enough to say that his philosophy was philosophy, as it took up in its embrace both the ideal and the real, at once the sensible and the super-sensible world (429-347 B.C.).
Platoff, Matvei Ivanovich, Count, hetman of Cossacks, and Russian commander in the Napoleonic wars; took part in the campaigns of 1805-7, and scourged the French during their retreat from Moscow in 1812, and again after their defeat at Leipzig 1813; he commanded at the victory of Altenburg 1813, and for his services obtained the title of count (1757-1818).
Platonic Love, love between persons of different sexes, in which as being love of soul for soul no sexual passion intermingles; is so named agreeably to the doctrine of Plato, that a man finds his highest happiness when he falls in with another who is his soul's counterpart or complement.
Platonic Year, a period of 26,000 years, denoting the time of a complete revolution of the equinox.
Platt-Deutsch or Low German, a dialect spoken by the peasantry in North Germany from the Rhine to Pomerania, and derived from Old Saxon.
Platte, the largest affluent of the Missouri, which joins it at Plattsmouth after an easterly course of 900 m.
Platten-See. See Balaton, Lake.
Plauen (46), a town in Saxony, on the Elster, 78 m. S. of Leipzig, with extensive textile and other manufactures.
Plautus, a Latin comic poet, born in Umbria; came when young to Rome, as is evident from his mastery of the Latin language and his knowledge of Greek; began to write plays for the stage at 30, shortly before the outbreak of the second Punic War, and continued to do so for 40 years; he wrote about 130 comedies, but only 20 have survived, the plots mostly borrowed from Greek models; they were much esteemed by his contemporaries; they have supplied material for dramatic treatment in modern times (227-184 B.C.).
Playfair, John, Scotch mathematician, born at Benvie; bred for the Church, became professor first of Mathematics and then of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University; wrote on geometry and geology, in the latter supported the Huttonian theory of the earth (1748-1819).
Pleiades, in the Greek mythology seven sisters, daughters of Atlas, transformed into stars, six of them visible and one invisible, and forming the group on the shoulders of Taurus in the zodiac; in the last week of May they rise and set with the sun till August, after which they follow the sun and are seen more or less at night till their conjunction with it again in May.
Pleiades, The, the name given to the promoters of a movement in the middle of the 16th century that aimed at the reform of the French language and literature on classical models, and led on by a group of seven men, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Belleau, Baïf, Daurat, Jodelle, and Pontus de Tyard. The name “Pleiad” was originally applied to seven contemporary poets in ancient Greece, and afterwards to seven learned men in the time of Charlemagne.
Plenist, name given to one who holds the doctrine that all space is filled with matter.
Plesiosaurus, an extinct marine animal with a small head and a long neck.
Pleura, the serous membrane that lines the interior of the thorax and invests the lungs.
Pleura-pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs and pleura, Pleurisy being the inflammation of the pleura alone.
Plevna (14), a fortified town in Bulgaria, in which Osman Pasha entrenched himself in 1877, and where he was compelled to capitulate and surrender to the Russians with his force of 42,000 men.
Pleydell, Mr. Paulus, a shrewd lawyer in Scott's “Guy Mannering.”
Plimsoll, Samuel, “the sailor's friend,” born at Bristol; after experience in a Sheffield brewery entered business in London as a coal-dealer; interesting himself in the condition of the sailor's life in the mercantile marine, he directed public attention to many scandalous abuses practised by unscrupulous owners, the overloading, under-manning, and insufficient equipment of ships and sending unseaworthy vessels out to founder for the sake of insurance money; entering Parliament for Derby in 1868, he secured the passing of the Merchant Shipping Act in 1876 levelled against these abuses; his name has been given to the circle with horizontal line through the centre, now placed by the Board of Trade on the side of every vessel to indicate to what depth she may be loaded in salt water (1824-1898).
Plinlimmon (i. e. five rivers), a mountain 2469 ft. high, with three summits, on the confines of Montgomery and Cardigan, so called as source of five different streams.
Pliny, the Elder, naturalist, born at Como, educated at Rome, and served in the army; was for a space procurator in Spain, spent much of his time afterwards studying at Borne; being near the Bay of Naples during an eruption of Vesuvius, he landed to witness the phenomenon, but was suffocated by the fumes; his “Natural History” is a repertory of the studies of the ancients in that department, being a record, more or less faithful, from extensive reading, of the observation of others rather than his own; d. A.D. 79.
Pliny, the Younger, nephew of the preceding, the friend of Trajan; filled various offices in the State; his fame rests on his “Letters,” of special interest to us for the account they give of the treatment of the early Christians and their manner of worship, as also of the misjudgment on the part of the Roman world at the time of their religion, as in their eyes, according to him, “a perverse and extravagant superstition” (62-115).
Plotinus, an Alexandrian philosopher of the Neo-Platonic school, born at Lycopolis, in Egypt; he taught philosophy at Rome, a system in opposition to the reigning scepticism of the time, and which based itself on the intuitions of the soul elevated into a state of mystical union with God, who in His single unity sums up all and whence all emanates, all being regarded as an emanation from Him (207-270).
Plugston of Undershot, Carlyle's name in “Past and Present” for a member or “Master-Worker” of the English mammon-worshipping manufacturing class in rivalry with the aristocracy for the ascendency in the land, who pays his workers his wages and thinks he has done his duty with them in so doing, and is secure in the fortune he has made by that cash-payment gospel of his as all the law and the prophets, called of “Undershot,” his mill being driven by a wheel, the working power of which is hidden unheeded by him, to break out some day to the damage of both his mill and him.
Plumptre, Edward Hayes, distinguished English divine and scholar, born in London; was Dean of Wells; as a divine he wrote commentaries on books of both the Old and New Testaments, and as a scholar executed able translations in verse of Sophocles, Æschylus, and the “Commedia” of Dante, the last perhaps his greatest and most enduring work (1821-1891).
Plunket, Lord, Chancellor of Ireland, born in Ireland, bred to the bar; entered the Irish House of Commons; opposed the Union with Great Britain; after the Union practised at the bar, and held legal appointments; was made a peer, and materially aided the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords in carrying the Catholic Emancipation Bill of 1829 (1764-1854).
Plutarch, celebrated Greek biographer and moralist, born at Chæronea, in Boeotia; studied at Athens; paid frequent visits to Rome, and formed friendships with some of its distinguished citizens; spent his later years at his native place, and held a priesthood; his fame rests on his “Parallel Lives” of 46 distinguished Greeks and Romans, a series of portraitures true to the life, and a work one of the most valuable we possess on the illustrious men of antiquity, and an enduring memorial of them (50-120).
Pluto, god of the nether world, son of Kronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Poseidon, and husband of Persephone; on the dethronement of Kronos the universe was divided among themselves by the three brothers, Zeus assuming the dominion of the upper world and Poseidon that of the ocean, leaving the nether kingdom to him, a domain over which and forth of which he ruled with a greater and more undisputed authority than the other two over heaven, earth, and sea.
Plutonic Theory, the theory that unstratifled rocks were formed by fusion in fire.
Plutus, the god of riches, son of Jason and Demeter. Zeus is said to have put out his eyes that he might bestow his gifts without respect to merit, that is, on the evil and the good impartially.
Plymouth (87), the largest town in Devonshire, stands on the N. shore of Plymouth Sound, 250 m. W. of London by rail; adjacent to it are the towns of Stonehouse and Devonport. Among the chief buildings are a Gothic town-hall, a 15th-century church, and a Roman Catholic cathedral. The chief industry is chemical manufactures. There is a large coasting and general trade, and important fisheries. Many sea-going steamship companies make it a place of call. The Sound is an important naval station, and historically famous as the sailing port of the fleet that vanquished the Armada.
Plymouth Brethren, an anti-clerical body of Christians, one of the earliest communities of which was formed in Plymouth about 1830; they accept, along with Pre-Millenarian views, generally the Calvinistic view of the Christian religion, and exclude all unconverted men from their communion, while all included in the body are of equal standing, and enjoy equal privileges as members of Christ. They appear to regard themselves as the sole representatives in these latter days of the Church of Christ, and as the salt of the earth, for whose sake it exists, and on whose decease it and its works of darkness will be burnt up. They are known also by the name of Darbyites, from the name of one of their founders, a barrister, John Nelson Darby, an able man, and with all his exclusiveness a sincere disciple of Christ (1800-1882).
Pneumonia, name given to acute inflammation of the lungs.
Po, the largest river in Italy, rises 6000 ft. above sea-level in the Cottian Alps, and after 20 m. of rocky defiles emerges on the great Lombardy plain, which it crosses from W. to E., receiving the Ticino, Adda, Mincio, and Trebbia, tributaries, and enters the Adriatic by a rapidly growing delta. Its total course is 360 m.; the width and volume of its stream make it difficult to cross and so a protection to all Italy. The chief towns on its banks are Turin, Piacenza, and Cremona.
Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian chief in Virginia, who favoured the English settlers there, saving the life of Captain Smith the coloniser, and afterwards married John Rolfe, one of the settlers; came to England, and was presented at Court; several Virginian families trace their descent to her.
Pocket Borough, a borough in which the influence of some magnate of the place determines the voting at an election time, a thing pretty much of the past.
Pocock, Edward, English Arabic and Hebrew scholar, born at Oxford, and occupied both the chairs of Arabic and Hebrew there, and left works in evidence of his scholarship and learning in both languages, quite remarkable for the time when he lived (1604-1691).
Pococke, Richard, English prelate, born at Southampton; travelled extensively, particularly in the East; wrote a description of the countries of the East and of others, among them “Tours In Scotland” and a “Tour in Ireland,” all deemed of value (1704-1765).
Podesta, the name given to the chief magistrate of an Italian town, with military as well as municipal authority; he was salaried, and annually elected to the office by the council, and had to give an account of his administration at the end of his term.
Podiebrad, George, king of Bohemia; rose, though a Hussite, and in spite of the Pope, from the ranks of the nobles to that elevation; forced his enemies to come to terms with him, and held his ground against them till the day of his death (1420-1471).
Poe, Edgar Allan, an American poet, born in Boston, Massachusetts; a youth of wonderful genius, but of reckless habits, and who came to an unhappy and untimely end; left behind him tales and poems, which, though they were not appreciated when he lived, have received the recognition they deserve since his death; his poetical masterpiece, “The Raven,” is well known; died at Baltimore of inflammation of the brain, insensible from which he was picked up in a street one evening (1809-1849).
Poerio, Carlo, Italian patriot; was conspicuous in the revolutionary movement of 1848; was arrested and banished, but escaped to England, where he was received with sympathy by Mr. Gladstone among others; he rose into power on the establishment of the kingdom of Italy (1803-1867).
Poet Laureate, the English court poet, an office which dates from the reign of Edward IV., the duty of the holder of it being originally to write an ode on the birthday of the monarch.
Poetical Justice, ideal justice as administered in their writings by the poets.
Poetry, the gift of penetrating into the inner soul or secret of a thing, and bodying it forth rhythmically so as to captivate the imagination and the heart.
Poet's Corner, a corner in the SW. transept of Westminster Abbey, so called as containing the tombs of Chaucer, Spenser, and other eminent English poets.
Poggendorf, Johann Christian, a German physicist and chemist, born at Hamburg; professor of Physics at Berlin; was the editor for more than half a century of the famous Annalen der Physik und Chimie, and the author of numerous papers (1796-1877).
Poggio, Bracciolini, an Italian scholar, born in Florence, was a distinguished humanist, and devoted to the revival of classical learning, collecting MSS. of the classics wherever he could find them that might otherwise have been lost, including Quintilian's “Institutions,” great part of Lucretius, and several orations of Cicero, &c.; wrote a “History of Florence,” where he died; he was the author of a collection of stories and of jests in Latin at the expense of the monks (1380-1459).
Point de Galle (33), a town on a promontory in the SW. of Ceylon, with a good harbour, and the great port of call for the lines of steamers in the Eastern waters.
Poisson, Simeon-Denis, a celebrated French mathematician, born at Pithiviers; was for his eminence in mathematical ability and physical research raised to the peerage; wrote no fewer than 300 memoirs (1781-1840).
Poitiers (34), the capital of the dep. of Vienne, 61 m. SW. of Tours; has a number of interesting buildings, a university and large library; in its neighbourhood Clovis defeated Alaric II. in 507, Charles Martel the Moors in 732, and the Black Prince the troops of King John in 1356.
Poitou, formerly a province in France, lying S. of the Loire, between the Vienne River and the sea; passed to England when its countess, Eleanor, married Henry I., 1152; was taken by Philip Augustus 1205, ceded to England again 1360, and retaken by Charles V. 1369.
Pola (31), the chief naval station of Austria, 73 m. S. of Trieste, in the Adriatic; the harbour is both spacious and deep; was originally a Roman colony, and a flourishing seat of commerce.
Poland, formerly a kingdom larger than modern Austro-Hungary, with a population of 24 millions, lying between the Baltic and the Carpathians, with Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia on the W., and the Russian provinces of Smolensk, Tchernigoff, Poltava, and Kherson on the E.; the Dwina, the Memel, and the Vistula flowed through its northern plains; the Dnieper traversed the E., the Dniester and the Bug rose in its SE. corner. The country is fertile; great crops of cereals are raised; there are forests of pine and oak, and extensive pasture lands; vast salt-mines are wrought at Cracow; silver, iron, copper, and lead in other parts. Poland took rank among European powers in the 10th century under Mieczyslaw, its first Christian king. During the 12th and 13th centuries it sank to the rank of a duchy. In 1241 the Mongols devastated the country, and thereafter colonies of Germans and Jewish refugees settled among the Slav population. The first Diet met in 1331, and Casimir the Great, 1333-1370, raised the country to a high level of prosperity, fostering the commerce of Danzig and Cracow. The dynasty of the Jagellons united Lithuania to Poland, ended two centuries' contest with the Teutonic knights, and yielded to the nobles such privileges as turned the kingdom into an oligarchy and elective monarchy. At the time of the Reformation Poland was the leading power in Eastern Europe. The new doctrines gained ground there in spite of severe persecution. Warsaw became the capital in 1569. The power and arrogance of the nobles grew; the necessity for unanimity in the votes of the Diet gave them a weapon to stop all progress and all correction of their own malpractices. Sigismund III. made unsuccessful attempts to seize the crowns of Russia and Sweden. In the middle of the 17th century a terrible struggle against Russia, Sweden, Brandenburg and the Cossacks ended in the complete defeat of Poland, from which she never recovered. Wars with the Turks, dissensions among her own nobles, quarrels at the election of every king, the continuance of serfdom, and the persecution of the adherents of the Greek Church and the Protestants, rendered her condition more and more deplorable. Austria, Russia, and Prussia began to interfere in her affairs. She was unfortunate in her choice of kings, and in the second half of the 18th century she was without natural boundaries, and Frederick the Great started the idea of partition. The first seizure of territory by the three interfering powers took place in 1772. A movement for reform reorganised the Diet, improved the condition of the serfs, established religious toleration, and promulgated a new constitution in 1781; but a party of unpatriotic nobles resented it, and laid the country open to a second seizure of territory by Prussia and Russia in 1793. The Poles now made a desperate stand under Kosciusko, but their three powerful neighbours were too strong, and the final partition of Poland between them took place in 1795. The Congress of Vienna rearranged the division in 1815, and reconstituted the Russian portion as a kingdom, with the Czar as king; but discontent broke into rebellion, and led to the final repression of independence in 1832.
Polders, low marshy lands in Holland and Belgium, drained and reclaimed from sea or river; they form an important part of the former, and are conspicuous from the verdure they display; they include nearly 150 acres of good land, the largest being that of Haarlem Meer, which is 70 square miles in extent, and was drained by steam.
Pole, the name given to the extremities of the imaginary axis of the earth, round which it is conceived to revolve.
Pole, Reginald, cardinal, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, of royal blood; studied at Oxford; took holy orders, and was appointed to various benefices by Henry VIII., who held him in high favour; but he opposed the project of divorcing Catherine, and was driven from the royal presence and deprived of his power; but elected to the cardinalate by the Pope, he tried to return after Henry's death, but was not received back till Mary's accession, when he came as Papal legate, and was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury after the death of Cranmer, whom he refused to supersede as long as he lived; he was not obsequious enough to the Pope, and his legation was cancelled; the Queen's illness accelerated his own end, and he died the day after her; he has been charged with abetting the Marian persecution, but it is highly questionable how far he was answerable for it (1506-1558).
Pole-star or Polaris, a star in the northern hemisphere, in Ursa Minor, the nearest conspicuous one to the N. pole of the heavens, from which it is at present 1½° distant; a straight line joining the two “pointers” in Ursa Major passes nearly through it.
Polignac, Duc de and Duchess de, husband and wife; were chargeable with the extravagances of the court of Louis XVI., and were the first to emigrate at the outbreak of the Revolution, the former dying in 1817 and the latter in 1793.
Polignac, Prince de, French statesman, born at Versailles, of an old noble family, prime minister of Charles X., to whose fall he contributed by his arbitrary measures; in attempting flight at the Revolution was captured and sentenced to death, which was converted into banishment; he was allowed to return at length (1780-1847).
Politian, Angelo, eminent Italian scholar, born in Tuscany; was patronised by Lorenzo de' Medici, was made professor of Greek and Latin at the university of Florence, his fame in which capacity drew to his class students from all parts of Europe; he did much to forward the Renaissance movement, and was distinguished as a poet no less than as a scholar; he became a priest towards the close of his life (1454-1494).
Political Economy, the name given to the modern soi-disant science concerned with the production, distribution, and exchange of wealth, against the relevancy of which to the economics of the world Ruskin has, for most part in vain, during the last forty years emitted a scornful protest, affirming that this is “mercantile” and not “political economy at all,” which he insists is the “economy of a state or of citizens,” consisting “simply in the production and distribution at fittest time and place of useful or pleasurable things ... a science which teaches nations to desire and labour for the things that lead to life, and to scorn and destroy those that lead to destruction ... though, properly speaking, it is neither an art nor a science, but a system of conduct and legislature, founded on the sciences, directing the arts, and impossible, except under certain conditions of moral culture,” with which last, however, the modern political economists maintain their science has nothing whatever to do.
Poliziano. See Politian.
Polk, James Knox, eleventh President of the United States, of Irish descent; admitted to the bar in 1820, entered Congress in 1825, became President in 1844, his term of office having been signalised by the annexation of Texas and California (1795-1849).
Pollio, Caius Asinius, orator, historian, and poet, born at Rome; sided with Cæsar against Pompey, and after the death of the former with Antony; was a patron of letters and the friend of Virgil and Horace, both of whom dedicated poems to him; he was the first to establish a public library in Rome (76 B.C. to A.D. 4).
Pollock, Sir Edward, an eminent English judge, born in London, contemporary of Brougham, a Tory in politics, represented Huntingdon, was twice over Attorney-General, became Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1844, and made a baronet on his retirement from the bench (1783-1870).
Pollock, Sir George, field-marshal, born at Westminster, brother of the preceding; distinguished himself in Nepal and the Afghan War, in the latter forced the Kyber Pass, defeated Akbar Khan, and relieved Sir Robert Sale, who was shut up in Jelallabad (1786-1872).
Pollok, Robert, Scottish poet, born in Renfrewshire; bred for the Secession Church, wrote one poem, “The Course of Time,” in 10 books, on the spiritual life and human destiny, which was published when he was dying of consumption, a complaint accelerated, it is believed, by his studious habits (1799-1827).
Pollux, the twin brother of Castor (q. v.).
Polo, a game similar to hockey, played on horseback with mallets, and devised by British officers in India in place of football.
Polo, Marco, a celebrated traveller, born in Venice of a noble family in 1271; accompanied his father and uncle while a mere youth to the court of the Great Khan, the Tartar emperor of China, by whom he was received with favour and employed on several embassies; unwilling to part with him the emperor allowed him along with his father and uncle to escort a young princess who was going to be married to a Persian prince on the promise that they would return, but the prince having died before their arrival, and deeming themselves absolved from their promise by his death, they moved straight home for Venice, where they arrived in 1295, laden with rich presents which had been given them; having fallen into the hands of the Genoese in a hostile expedition, Marco was put in prison, where he wrote the story of his adventures, originally in French it would seem, which proved to be the first account that opened up to wondering Europe the magnificence of the Eastern world (1255-1323).
Polyandry, the name given to a form of polygamy met with among certain rude races, under which a woman is united and lives in marriage to several husbands.
Polybius, a Greek historian, born at Megalopolis, in Arcadia; sent to Rome as a hostage, he formed an intimate friendship with Scipio Æmilianus, who aided him in his historical researches, and whom he accompanied to Africa on the expedition which issued in the destruction of Carthage, after which he returned to Greece and began his literary labours, the fruit of which was a history of Greece and Rome from 220 to 146 B.C. in 40 books, of which 5 have come down to us complete, a work characterised by accurate statement of facts and sound judgment of their import, written with a purpose to instruct in practical wisdom; he has been called “the first pragmatical historian” (204-122 B.C.).
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, one of the early Fathers of the Church, a disciple of the Apostles and in particular of St. John; was for nearly 70 years bishop, and suffered martyrdom for refusing to renounce Christ, “after having served Him,” as he said, “for 86 years”; of his writings the only one extant is an “Epistle to the Philippians,” the genuineness of which, at one time questioned, is now established, and is of value chiefly in questions affecting the canon of Scripture and the origin of the Church.
Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, and friend of Anacreon and art and literature generally; formed an alliance with Amasis, king of Egypt, who, struck with his prosperity, ascribed it to the envy of the gods, insinuating that they intended his ruin thereby, and advised him, in order to avert his impending doom, to throw the most valuable of his possessions into the sea, upon which he threw a signet ring of great price and beauty, to find it again in the mouth of a fish a fisherman had sold him; still, though upon this Amasis broke alliance with him, his prosperity clung to him, till one day he was allured by a Persian satrap, his enemy, away from Samos, and by him crucified to death, 521 B.C.
Polygnotus, an early Greek painter, born in Thasos, and settled in Athens 463 B.C.; is considered the founder of historical painting, and is praised especially by Aristotle, who pays a high tribute to him; was the first to attempt portrait-painting and exhibit character by his art.
Polyhymnia, one of the nine Muses (q. v.); she is represented as in a pensive mood, with her forefinger on her mouth; she was the inventress of the lyre and the mother of Orpheus.
Polynesia is the collective name of all the islands of the Pacific of coral or volcanic origin. These South Sea islands are scattered, isolated, or more usually in groups over a stretch of ocean 7000 m. from N. to S. and 6000 from E. to W.; with the exception of the two chief members of the New Zealand archipelago they are mostly small, and exhibit wonderful uniformity of climate; the temperature is moderate, and where there are any hills to intercept the moisture-laden trade-winds the rainfall is high; they are extremely rich in flora; characteristic of their vegetation are palms, bread fruit trees, and edible roots like yams and sweet potatoes, forests of tree-ferns, myrtles, and ebony, with endless varieties of beautiful flowering plants; their fauna is wonderfully poor, varieties of rats and bats, a few snakes, frogs, spiders, and centipedes, with the crocodile, being the chief indigenous animals; the three divisions of Polynesia are Micronesia, comprising five small archipelagoes in the NW., N. of the equator, of which the chief are the Mariana and Caroline groups; Melanesia, comprising eleven archipelagoes in the W., S. of the equator, of which the largest are the Solomon, Bismarck, Fiji, New Caledonia, and New Hebrides groups; and Eastern Polynesia, E. of these on both sides of the equator, including New Zealand, Hawaii, and Samoa, ten other archipelagoes, and numerous sporadic islands; the first of these divisions is occupied by a mixed population embracing many distinct elements, the second by the black, low-type Melanesians, the third by the light brown, tall Polynesians; traces of extinct civilisation are found in Easter Island and the Carolines; most of the islands are now in the possession of European powers, and are more or less Christianised; New Zealand is one of the most enterprising and flourishing colonies of Great Britain; everywhere the native races are dying out before the immigration of Europeans.
Polyphemus, in Homeric legend a son of Neptune, the most celebrated of the Cyclops, a huge monster with one eye, who dwelt in Sicily in a cave near Ætna, and whose eye, after making him drunk, Ulysses burnt out, lest he should circumvent him and devour him, as he had done some of his companions.
Polytechnic School, an institution for teaching the practical arts and the related sciences, especially such as depend on mathematics.
Polytheism, a belief in a plurality of gods each with a sphere of his own, and each in general a personification of some elemental power concerned in the government of the world.
Pombal, Marquis de, a great Portuguese statesman, born in Coimbra; was Prime Minister of Joseph I.; partial to the philosophic opinions of the 18th century, he set himself to fortify the royal power, to check that of the aristocracy, and to enlighten the people; he was the pronounced enemy of the Jesuits, reformed the University of Coimbra, purified the administration, encouraged commerce and industry, whereby he earned for himself at the hands of the people the name of the Great Marquis; on the accession of Maria, Joseph's daughter and successor, he was, under Jesuit influence, dispossessed of power, to die in poverty (1699-1782).
Pomerania (1,521), a Prussian province lying between the Baltic and Brandenburg, with West Prussia on the E. and Mecklenburg on the W., is a flat and in some parts sandy country, with no hills, many lakes, and a large lagoon, the Stettiner Haff, into which the chief river, the Oder, falls; the islands of Wallin, Usedom, and Rügen belong to the province; the main industry is agriculture, principal products rye and potatoes; poultry-rearing and fishing are extensively carried on; there are shipbuilding, machine-works, sugar and chemical factories; Stettin, the capital, and Stralsund are important trading centres; a university is at Greifswald; the Slavic population embraced Christianity in the 12th century; shortly afterwards the duke joined the German Empire; after the Thirty Years' War much of the province fell to Sweden, and the whole was not finally ceded to Prussia till 1815.
Pomona, or Mainland, the largest island in the Orkneys, has a low treeless surface, many lakes, and extensive pasture-land; agriculture has of late improved, and, with stock-raising and fishing, is the chief industry; the only towns are Kirkwall and Stromness.
Pomona, in the Roman mythology is the goddess of fruits, who presided over their ripening and in-gathering, and was generally represented bearing fruits in her lap or in a basket.
Pompadour, Marquise de, a famous mistress of Louis XV., born in Paris; celebrated for her beauty and wit; throwing herself, though a married woman, in the king's way, she took his fancy, and was installed at Versailles; for 20 years exercised an influence both over him and the affairs of the kingdom, to the corruption and ruin of both, and the exasperation of the nation; she was preceded as mistress of Louis by La Châteroux, and succeeded by Du Barri (1721-1764).
Pompeii, an ancient Italian seaport on the Bay of Naples, fell into the possession of Rome about 80 B.C., and was converted into a watering-place and “the pleasure haunt of paganism”; the Romans erected many handsome public buildings, and their villas and theatres and baths were models of classic architecture and the scenes of unbounded luxury; the streets were narrow, provided with side-walks, the walls often decorated with painting or scribbled over by idle gamins; the number of shops witnesses to the fashion and gaiety of the town, the remains of painted notices to its municipal life; a terrible earthquake ruined it and drove out the inhabitants in A.D. 63; they returned and rebuilt it, however, in a tawdry and decadent style, and luxury and pleasure reigned as before till in A.D. 79 an eruption of Vesuvius buried everything in lava and ashes; the ruins were forgotten till accidentally discovered in 1748; since 1860 the city has been disinterred under the auspices of the Italian Government, and is now a favourite resort of tourists and archæologists.
Pompey, Cneius, surnamed the Great, Roman general and statesman; entered into public life after the death of Marius; associated himself with Sulla; distinguished himself in Africa and in the Mithridatic War; was raised to the consulate with Crassus in 71 B.C.; cleared the Mediterranean Sea of pirates in 67-66; formed against the Senate, along with Cæsar and Crassus, the first triumvirate, and in 54 entered into rivalry with Cæsar; after a desperate struggle he was defeated at Pharsalia, and escaping to Egypt, was assassinated there by orders of Ptolemy XII. (106-48 B.C.).
Pompey's Pillar, a block of red granite near Alexandria, forming a pillar 98 ft. 3 in. high; erected in honour of the Emperor Diocletian, who conquered Alexandria in 296. The name is an invention of some mistaken early traveller.
Ponce de Leon, Spanish navigator; conquered Porto Rico in 1510, and discovered Florida in 1512. Also the name of a Spanish poet; was a professor of Theology at Salamanca; was translator of the Song of Solomon, and wrote a commentary on it in Latin.
Poncho, a kind of cloak or shawl, of woollen or alpaca cloth, oblong in shape, with a slit in the centre, through which the wearer passes his head, allowing the folds to cover his shoulders and arms to the elbows, and to fall down before and behind; worn by the native men in Chili and Argentina. Ponchos of waterproof are used by the United States cavalry.
Pondicherry (173), a small French colony on the E. coast of India, 53 m. S. of Madras; was first occupied in 1674. It was captured by the Dutch in 1693, and by the English successively in 1761, 1778, and 1793, but on each occasion restored. The capital, Pondicherry (41), is the capital of the French possessions in India; has handsome tree-lined streets, government buildings, college, lighthouse, cotton mills, and dye-works. The harbour is an open roadstead; trade is small, the chief export oil seeds.
Pondos, a branch of Zulu-Kaffirs, 200,000 in number, occupying territory called Pondo Land, annexed to Cape Colony, in South Africa.
Poniatowski, Prince Joseph, Polish general, born in Warsaw; commanded the Polish contingent that accompanied Napoleon in his expedition into Russia in 1812; was created Marshal of France on the field of Leipzig; covered the retreat of the French army, and was drowned crossing the Elster; his chivalrous bravery earned him the honourable appellation of the Polish Bayard; he was buried at Cracow, and his remains placed beside those of Sobieski and Kosciusko (1762-1813).
Pons Asinorum (i. e. Bridge of Asses), the fifth proposition in the 1st book of Euclid, so called for the difficulty many a tyro has in mastering it.
Ponsonby, Sir Frederick Cavendish, military officer; served in the Peninsular War; distinguished himself at Waterloo; lay wounded all night after the engagement; was conveyed next day in a cart to the village with seven wounds in his body; was a great favourite with the army (1783-1837).
Pontefract (16), an ancient market-town of Yorkshire, 13 m. SE. of Leeds; has a castle in which Richard II. died, and which suffered four sieges in the Civil War, a market hall, grammar school, and large market-gardens, where liquorice for the manufacture of Pomfret cakes is grown.
Pontifex Maximus, the chief of the college of priests in ancient Rome, the officiating priests being called Flamens.
Pontifical, a service-book of the Romish Church, containing prayers and rites for a performance of public worship by the Pope or bishop; also in the plural the name of the full dress of an officiating priest.
Pontine Marshes, a district, 26 m. by 17, in the S. of the Campagna of Rome, one of the three malarial districts of Italy, and the most unhealthy of the three, extending about 30 m. in length and 10 or 11 in varying breadth, is grazing ground for herds of cattle, horses, and buffaloes. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to drain these marshes.
Pontus, the classical name of a country on the SE. shores of the Black Sea, stretching from the river Halys to the borders of Armenia; is represented by the modern Turkish provinces of Trebizond and Sivas. Originally a Persian province, it became independent shortly after 400 B.C., and remained so till part was annexed to Bithynia in 65 B.C., and the rest constituted a Roman province in A.D. 63.
Poole (15), a seaport of Dorsetshire, 5 m. W. of Bournemouth; has a trade in potters' and pipe-clay, with considerable shipping.
Poole, Matthew, English controversialist and commentator, born at York, educated at Cambridge; became rector of St. Michael le Querne in London, but was expelled from his living by the Act of Uniformity 1662; retiring to Holland he died at Amsterdam; besides polemics against Rome he compiled a “Synopsis Criticorum Biblicorum,” containing the opinions of 150 Biblical critics (1624-1679).
Poona (160), 119 m. by rail SE. of Bombay, is the chief military station in the Deccan, and in the hot season the centre of government in the Bombay Presidency; with narrow streets and poor houses, it is surrounded by gardens; here are the Deccan College, College of Science, and other schools; the English quarters are in the cantonments; silk, cotton, and jewellery are manufactured; it was the capital of the Mahrattas, and was annexed by Britain in 1818.
Poor Richard, the name assumed by Franklin (q. v.) in his almanacs.
Pope (i. e. Papa), a title originally given to all bishops of the Church, and eventually appropriated by Leo the Great, the bishop of Rome, as the supreme pontiff in 449, a claim which in 1054 created the Great Schism, and which asserted itself territorially as well as spiritually, till now at length the Pope has been compelled to resign all territorial power. The present Pope, Pius X., is the successor of 258 who occupied before him the Chair of St. Peter.
Pope, Alexander, eminent English poet, born in London, of Roman Catholic parents; was a sickly child, and marred by deformity, and imperfectly educated; began to write verse at 12 in which he afterwards became such a master; his “Pastorals” appeared in 1709, “Essay on Criticism” in 1711, and “Rape of the Lock” in 1712, in the production of which he was brought into relationship with the leading literary men of the time, and in particular Swift, between whom and him a lifelong friendship was formed; in 1715-20 appeared his translation of the “Iliad,” and in 1723-25 that of the “Odyssey,” for which two works, it is believed, he received some £9000; afterwards, in 1728, appeared the “Dunciad,” a scathing satire of all the small fry of poets and critics that had annoyed him, and in 1732 appeared the first part of the famous “Essay on Man”; he was a vain man, far from amiable, and sometimes vindictive to a degree, though he was capable of warm attachments, and many of his faults were due to a not unnatural sensitiveness as a deformed man; but as a poet he is entitled to the homage which Professor Saintsbury pays when he characterises him as “one of the greatest masters of poetic form that the world has ever seen” (1688-1744).
Popish Plot, an imaginary plot devised by Titus Oates (q. v.) on the part of the Roman Catholics in Charles II.'s reign; in the alleged connection a number of innocent people lost their lives.
Porch, The, the name given to the school of Zeno (q. v.), so called from the Arcade in Athens, in which he taught his philosophy, a “many-coloured portico,” as decorated with the paintings of Polygnotus (q. v.).
Porcupine, Peter, a pseudonym assumed by William Cobbett (q. v.).
Porphyry, a Neo-Platonic philosopher of Alexandria, born at Tyre; resorted to Rome and became a disciple of Plotinus (q. v.), whose works he edited; he wrote a work against Christianity, known only from the replies (233-305).
Porsena, a king of Etruria, famous in the early history of Rome, who took up arms to restore Tarquin, the last king, but was reconciled to the Roman people from the brave feats he saw, certain of them accomplished, as well as the formidable power of endurance they displayed.
Porson, Richard, eminent Greek scholar, born in Norfolk; was a prodigy of learning and critical acumen; edited the plays of Æschylus and four of Euripides, but achieved little in certification to posterity of his ability and attainments; was a man of slovenly and intemperate habits, and died of apoplexy (1759-1808).
Port Arthur, a naval station on the peninsula extending S. into the Gulf of Pechili; conceded to Russia on a lease of 99 years.
Port Darwin, one of the finest harbours in Australia; is on the N. coast opposite Bathurst Island; on its shores stands Palmerston, terminus of the overland telegraph, the cable to Java, and a railway to the gold mines 150 m. inland.
Port Elizabeth (25), the third largest town and chief trading centre of Cape Colony; stands on Algoa Bay, 85 m. SW. of Grahamstown; it has magnificent public buildings, parks, and squares, a college, library, and museum. It is the chief port in the E. of the colony and for Natal, the principal exports being wools, hides, and ostrich feathers.
Port Glasgow (15), a Renfrewshire seaport on the S. shore of the Firth of Clyde, 3 m. E. of Greenock and 20 W. of Glasgow; was founded by the magistrates of Glasgow in 1668 as a port for that city before the deepening of the river was projected. In the beginning of the 18th century it was the chief port on the Clyde, but has since been surpassed by Greenock and Glasgow itself. There are shipbuilding, iron and brass founding industries, and extensive timber ponds.
Port Louis (62), capital of Mauritius, on the NW. coast; is the chief port of the colony, with an excellent harbour, and contains the British government buildings, a Protestant and a Roman Catholic cathedral, barracks, and military store-houses. It is a naval coaling-station.
Port Royal, a convent founded in 1204, 8 m. SW. of Versailles, and which in the 17th century became the head-quarters of Jansenism (q. v.), and the abode of Antoine Lemaitre, Antoine Arnauld, and others, known as the “Solitaires of the Port Royal.” They were distinguished for their austerity, their piety, and their learning, in evidence of which last they established a school of instruction, in connection with which they prepared a series of widely famous educational works.
Port-au-Prince (20), on the W. coast of Hayti, on Port-au-Prince Bay, is the capital; a squalid town; exports coffee, cocoa, logwood, hides, and mahogany.
Portcullis, a strong grating resembling a harrow hanging over the gateway of a fortress, let down in a groove of the wall in the case of a surprise.
Porte, Sublime, or simply the Porte, is a name given to the Turkish Government.
Porteous Mob, the name given a mob that collected in the city of Edinburgh on the night of the 7th September 1736, broke open the Tolbooth jail, and dragged to execution in the Grassmarket one Captain Porteous, captain of the City Guard, who on the occasion of a certain riot had ordered his men to fire on the crowd to the death of some and the wounding of others, and had been tried and sentenced to death, but, to the indignation of the citizens, had been respited. The act was one for which the authorities in the city were held responsible by the Government, and the city had to pay to Porteous' widow £1500.
Porter, Jane, English novelist, born in Durham; her most famous novels were “Thaddeus of Warsaw” (1803) and “The Scottish Chiefs” (1810), both highly popular in their day, the latter particularly; it induced Scott to go on with Waverley; died at Bristol (1776-1850).
Porter, Noah, American philosophical writer, born at Farmington, Connecticut, educated at Yale; was a Congregationalist minister 1836-46, then professor of Moral Philosophy at Yale, and afterwards President of the college; Edinburgh University granted him the degree of D.D. in 1886; among his works are “The Human Intellect” and “Books and Reading”; b. 1811.
Porteus, Beilby, English churchman, born at York, of American parentage; graduated and became Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, and took orders in 1757; from the rectory of Hunton, Kent, he was preferred to that of Lambeth in 1767, thence to the bishopric of Chester in 1776, and to that of London 1787; a poor scholar, he yet wrote some popular books, especially a “Summary of Christian Evidences,” and “Lectures on St. Matthew's Gospel”; he posed as a Sabbatarian and an advocate of the abolition of slavery (1731-1809).
Portia, the rich heiress in the “Merchant of Venice,” whose destiny in marriage depended, as ordained by her father, on the discretion of the wooer to choose the one of the three caskets that contained her portrait.
Portland, 1, the largest city (50) and principal seaport of Maine, stands on a peninsula in Casco Bay, 108 in. NE. of Boston by rail. It has extensive wharfs, dry-docks, and grain-elevators, engineer shops, shoe-factories, and sugar-refineries. Settled as an English colony in 1632, it was ravaged by fire in 1866. Longfellow was born here. 2, largest city (90) in Oregon, on the Willamette River, nearly 800 m. N. of San Francisco; is a handsome city, with numerous churches and schools; there are iron-foundries, mechanics' shops, canneries, and flour-mills; railway communication connects it with St. Paul and Council Bluffs, and the river being navigable for deep-sea steamers, it is a thriving port of entry.
Portland, Isle of, a rocky peninsula in the SW. of Dorsetshire, connected by Chesil Bank and the Mainland; is famous as the source of great quantities of fine building limestone; here is also a convict-prison opened 1848, accommodating 1500 prisoners.
Portland Vase, an ancient cinerary urn of dark blue glass ornamented with Greek mythological figures carved in a layer of white enamel found near Rome about 1640, and which came into the possession of the Portland family in 1787, and is now in the British Museum. It is ten inches high and seven inches round.
Porto Rico (814), a West Indian island, half the size of Wales, 75 m. E. of Hayti, is well watered and very fertile. Ranges of hills run from E. to W., and are covered with valuable timber. Sugar, coffee, and rice are the principal crops; tobacco and tropical fruits are grown; cattle and horses are reared. Textile goods, hardware, and provisions are imported; the exports are sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cattle. The capital is St. John's (24), Mayaguez (27), and Ponce (40), the other towns. The island was discovered by Columbus, who called it Hispaniola, in 1493. Colonised by Spain in 1510, it attempted unsuccessfully to gain independence in 1820-23. The abolition of slavery in 1873, and the growth of population, marked the remainder of its history as a Spanish colony. It was seized by the United States in the war of 1898.
Portobello (8), a Midlothian watering-place on the Firth of Forth, 3 m. E. of Edinburgh, with which it is now incorporated for municipal purposes; has a fine esplanade and promenade pier, and manufactures of pottery, bricks, and bottles.
Portsmouth, 1, largest city (10) of New Hampshire, and only seaport in the State, on the Piscataqua River, 3 m. from the ocean; is by rail 57 m. NE. of Boston, a handsome old town and favourite watering-place; near it is a U.S. navy-yard. 2, (12), On the Ohio River, in Ohio; is the centre of an extensive iron industry. 3, (13), Seaport and naval station on the Elizabeth River, Virginia.
Portsmouth (159), the most important British naval station, a seaport and market-town, is situated on Portsea Island, on the coast of Hants, 15 m. SE. of Southampton. It is an unimposing town, but strongly fortified. St. Thomas's and Garrison Chapel are old churches with historical associations. The naval dockyards contain 12 docks lined with masonry, vast store-houses, wood-mills, anchor-forges, and building-slips. Some of the docks are roofed over, as also is a large building-slip on which four vessels may be constructed at once. The harbour can receive the largest war-vessels, and in Spithead roadstead 1000 ships can anchor at once. The trade of Portsmouth is dependent on the dockyards. It owes its defences to Edward IV. Elizabeth, and William III. It was the scene of Buckingham's assassination and of the loss of the Royal George. Three novelists were born here—Dickens, Meredith, and Besant.
Portugal (5,000), a country as large as Ireland, bounded on the S. and W. by the Atlantic, on the N. and E. by Spain, from which at different places it is separated by the rivers Minho, Douro, Tagus, and Guadiana; consists of the Atlantic slopes of the great peninsular tableland, and has a moist, warm atmosphere, heavy rains, and frequent fogs. The above rivers and the Mondego traverse it; their valleys are fertile, the mountain slopes covered with forests. In the N. the oak abounds, in the centre the chestnut, in the S. cork-trees and palms. Agriculture, carried on with primitive implements, is the chief industry. Indian corn, wheat, and in the S. rice, are extensively grown; the vine yields the most valuable crops, but in the N. it is giving place to tobacco. There are a few textile factories. The largest export is wine; the others, cork, copper ore, and onions, which are sent to Great Britain, Brazil, and France. The principal imports, iron, textiles, and grain. The capital is Lisbon, on the Tagus, one of the finest towns in the world. Oporto, the chief manufacturing centre, and second city for commerce, is at the mouth of the Douro. Braga was once the capital. Coimbra, on the Mondego, is the rainiest place in Europe. There are good roads between the chief towns, 1200 m. of railway and 3000 m. of telegraph. The people are a mixed race, showing traces of Arab, Berber, and Negro blood, with a predominance of northern strains. They are courteous and gentle; the peasantry hard-working and thrifty. Roman Catholic is the national faith, but they are tolerant of other religions. The language is closely akin to Spanish. Education is backward. The Government is a limited monarchy, there being two houses of Parliament—Peers and Deputies. The Azores and Madeira are part of the kingdom; there are colonies in Africa and Asia, in which slavery was abolished only in 1878. The 14th and 15th centuries saw the zenith of Portugal's fortunes. At that time, in strict alliance with England, she raised herself by her enterprise to the foremost maritime and commercial power of Europe; her navigators founded Brazil, and colonised India. Diaz in 1487 discovered and Vasco da Gama in 1497 doubled the Cape of Good Hope. In 1520 Magellan sailed round the world; but in the 16th century the extensive emigration, the expulsion of the Jews, the introduction of the Inquisition, and the spread of Jesuit oppression, led to a speedy downfall. For a time she was annexed to Spain. Regaining her independence, she threw herself under the protection of England, her traditional friend, during the Napoleonic struggle. She is now an inconsiderable power, commercially thriving, politically restless, financially unsound.
Poseidon, in the Greek mythology the god of the sea, a son of Kronos and Rhea, and brother of Zeus, Pluto, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter; had his home in the sea depths, on the surface of which he appeared with a long beard, seated in a chariot drawn by brazen-hoofed horses with golden manes, and wielding a trident, which was the symbol of his power, exercised in production of earthquake and storms. See Pluto.
Posen (1,752), a province of Prussia on the Russian frontier, surrounded by West Prussia, Brandenburg, and Silesia; belongs to the great North German plain; has several lakes, and is traversed by the navigable Warthe, Netze, and Vistula. The prevailing industry is agriculture; the crops are grain, potatoes, and hops; there are some manufactures of machinery and cloth. Originally part of Poland, half the population are Poles; except the Jews, most of the people are Catholics. The capital is Posen (70), on the Warthe, by rail 185 m. E. of Berlin. It is a pleasant town, with a cathedral, museum, and library, manufactures of manure and agricultural implements, breweries and distilleries. It is now a fortress of the first rank. Gnesen and Bromberg are the other chief towns.
Posidonius, an eminent Stoic philosopher, born in Syria; established himself in Rhodes, where he rose to eminence; was visited by Cicero and Pompey, both of whom became his pupils; maintained that pain was no evil; “in vain, O Pain,” he exclaimed one day under the pangs of it, “in vain thou subjectest me to torture; it is not in thee to extort from me the reproach that thou art an evil” (135-34 B.C.).
Positivism, the philosophy so called of Auguste Comte (q. v.), the aim of which is to propound a new arrangement of the sciences and a new theory of the evolution of science; the sciences he classes under the categories of abstract and concrete, and his law of evolution is that every department of knowledge passes in the history of it through three successive stages, and only in the last of which it is entitled to the name of science—the Theological stage, in which everything is referred to the intervention of the gods; the Metaphysical, in which everything is referred to an abstract idea; and the Positive, which, discarding at once theology and philosophy, contents itself with the study of phenomena and their sequence, and regards that as science proper. Thus is positivism essentially definable, in Dr. Stirling's words, as “a method which replaces all outlying agencies, whether Theological deities or Metaphysical entities, by Positive laws; which laws, and in their phenomenal relativity, as alone what can be known, ought alone to constitute what is sought to be known.” See Dr. Stirling's “Schwegler.”
Posse Comitatus, a Latin expression, signifies the whole coercive power of a county called out in the case of a riot, and embraces all males over 15 except peers, ecclesiastics, and infirm persons. These may be summoned by the sheriff to assist in maintaining the public peace, enforcing a writ, or capturing a felon; but usually the constabulary is sufficient for these duties.
Post Restante, department of a post-office where letters lie till they are called for.
Potemkin, Russian officer, born at Smolensk, of Polish descent; a handsome man with a powerful physique, who attracted the attention of Catharine II., became one of her chief favourites, and directed the foreign policy of Russia under her for 13 years; is understood to have been an able man, but unscrupulous (1736-1771).
Potomac River, rising in the Alleghany Mountaine, flows 400 m. eastward between Maryland and the Virginias into Chesapeake Bay; the Shenandoah is the chief tributary. The river is navigable as far up as Cumberland, and is tidal up to Washington, which is on its banks.
Potosi (12), an important mining and commercial town of Bolivia, situated 13,000 ft. above sea-level on the slopes of the Cerro de Potosi; is one of the loftiest inhabited places on the globe, but a dilapidated, squalid place. There is a cathedral, next to Lima the finest in South America, a mint, and extensive reservoirs; the streets are steep and without vehicles; the climate is cold, and the surrounding hillsides barren; the industry is silver mining, but the mines are becoming exhausted and flooded.
Potsdam (54), 18 m. SW. of Berlin, stands on an island at the confluence of the Nuthe and Havel, and is the capital of the Prussian province of Brandenburg; a handsome town, with broad streets, many parks and squares, numberless statues and fine public buildings; it is a favourite residence of Prussian royalty, and has several royal palaces; was the birthplace of Alexander von Humboldt; has sugar and chemical works, and a large violet-growing industry.
Pott, August Friedrich, eminent philologist, born in Hanover; wrote on the Indo-Germanic languages, a work which ranks next in importance to Bopp's “Comparative Grammar”; he was the author of a number of philological papers which appeared in the learned journals of the day (1802-1887).
Potter, John, archbishop of Canterbury, born in Yorkshire, son of a draper, a distinguished scholar; author of “Archæologia Græca,” a work on the antiquities of Greece, and for long the authority on that subject (1674-1747).
Potter, Paul, a great Dutch animal-painter, lived chiefly at Amsterdam and The Hague; his most celebrated picture, life-size, is the “Young Bull,” now at The Hague (1625-1654).
Potteries, The, a district in North Staffordshire, 9 m. long by 3 broad, the centre of the earthenware manufacture of England; it includes Hanley, Burslem, Stoke-upon-Trent, &c.
Pot-wallopers (i. e. Pot-boilers), a popular name given prior to the Reform Bill of 1832 to a class of electors in a borough who claimed the right to vote on the ground of boiling a pot within its limits for six months.
Pourparler, a diplomatic conference towards the framing of a treaty.
Poussin, Nicolas, one of the most illustrious of French painters, born near Andelys, in Normandy; studied first in Paris and then at Rome, where he first attained celebrity, whence he was in 1640 invited to Paris by Louis XIII., who appointed him painter-in-ordinary, with a studio in the Tuileries, returning three years after to Rome, where he died; he is the author of numerous great works, among which may be mentioned the “Shepherds of Arcadia,” “The Deluge,” “Moses drawn out of the Water,” “The Flight into Egypt,” &c., all of which display simplicity of taste, nobility of character, and artistic talent of a high order (1594-1665).
Powell, Baden, physicist, rationalist in theology, born in London; was Savilian professor of Geometry at Oxford, wrote a number of treatises on physical subjects, and contributed to the famous “Essays and Reviews” an essay on the evidences of Christianity which gave no small offence to orthodox people (1796-1860).
Powell, Major, American geologist and ethnologist, born in New York State; served in the Civil War, explored the cañon of Colorado, and became Director of the U.S. Geological Survey; has written on geological and ethnological subjects; b. 1834.
Powers, Hiram, American sculptor, born in Vermont; began his career by modelling busts at Washington, in 1837 emigrated to Italy, and resided the rest of his life at Florence, where he produced his “Eve,” his “Greek Slave,” and other works (1807-1873).
Poynings's Law, an Act of Parliament held at Drogheda in 1495 in the reign of Henry VII., declaring that all statutes hitherto passed in England should be also in force in Ireland, so called from Sir Edward Poynings, the lieutenant of Ireland at the time.
Poynter, Edward John, painter, born in Paris; was educated in England, studied in Rome and Paris, and settled in London in 1860; held appointments at University College and at Kensington, but resigned them in 1881 to prosecute his art, which he has since assiduously done, and with distinction; was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1896; is the author of “Lectures on Art”; b. 1836.
Pozzo di Borgo, Count, the lifelong enemy of Napoleon, born in Ajaccio, Corsica; was a partisan of Paoli; obliged to flee from Corsica, took refuge in London, in Vienna, and then in Russia, and plotted everywhere to compass the ruin of his arch-enemy; seduced, out of simple hatred of him, Bernadotte from the service of Napoleon, and egged on the allies against France; represented Russia at the Congress of Vienna, and died in Paris (1764-1842).
Pozzuoli (12), an Italian city on the Bay of Naples, is noted for its classical remains; the cathedral was once the temple of Augustus; there are ruins of other temples, a forum, and the ancient harbour of Puteoli, where St. Paul landed; the town has been submerged and partially raised again by volcanic action; Mount Solfatara, behind, supplies medicinal gases and springs; near it are the Italian works of Armstrong of Elswick.
P. P., Clerk of this Parish, the feigned author of a volume of memoirs written by Arbuthnot in ridicule of Burnet's “History of My Own Times.”
Praed, Winthrop Mackworth, witty facile versifier and politician, born in London; practised in verse-making from a boy, notably at Eton; bred for the bar, entered Parliament as a Tory in 1830, and rose into office; wrote several verse-tales, some pieces of promise, such as “Arminius” and “My Pretty Josephine,” a grotesque production called “The Red Fisherman,” and exquisite vers de société (1802-1839).
Prætor, a Roman magistrate at first, virtually a third consul, with administrative functions, chiefly judiciary, originally in the city, and ultimately in the provinces as well, so that the number of them increased at one time to as many as 16.
Prætorian Guard, a select body of soldiers distributed in cohorts, as many as ten of a thousand each, to guard the person and maintain the power of the emperors, and who at length acquired such influence in the State as to elect and depose at will the emperors themselves, disposing at times of the imperial purple to the highest bidder, till they were in the end outnumbered and dispersed by Constantine in 312.
Pragmatic Sanction, a term applied to “an ordinance of a very irrevocable nature which a sovereign makes in affairs belonging wholly to himself, or what he reckons within his own right,” but applied more particularly to the decree promulgated by Charles VI., emperor of Germany, whereby he vested the right of succession to the throne of Austria in his daughter, Maria Theresa, wife of Francis of Lorraine, a succession which was guaranteed by France, the States-General, and the most of the European Powers.
Prague (310), capital of Bohemia, on the Moldau, 217 m. by rail NW. of Vienna, is a picturesque city with over 70 towers, a great royal palace, unfinished cathedral, an old town-hall, a picture-gallery, observatory, botanical garden, and museums; the University, partly German and partly Czech, has 300 teachers, 4000 students, and a magnificent library; the centre of an important transit trade, Prague is the chief commercial city of Bohemia; has manufactures of machinery, chemicals, leather, and textile goods; four-fifths of the population are Czechs; founded in the 12th century, it has suffered in many wars; was captured by the Hussites 1424, fell frequently during the Thirty Years' War, capitulated to Frederick the Great 1757, and in 1848 was bombarded for two days by the Austrian Government in quelling the democratic demonstrations of the Slavonic Congress of that year.
Prairie, name given by the French to an extensive tract of flat or rolling land covered with tall, waving grass, mostly destitute of trees, and forming the great central plain of North America, which extends as far N. as Canada.
Prakrit, name given to a group of Hindu languages based on Sanskrit.
Pratique, license given to a ship to enter port on assurance from the captain to convince the authorities that she is free from contagious disease.
Praxiteles, great Greek sculptor, born at Athens; executed statues in both bronze and marble, and was unrivalled in the exhibition of the softer beauties of the human form, especially the female figure, his most celebrated being the marble one of Aphrodité at Cnidus; he executed statues of Eros, Apollo, and Hermes as well, but they have all perished.
Praying-Wheels, cylinders with printed prayers on them, driven by hand, water, or wind-power, in use among the Buddhists of Thibet.
Pre-Adamites, a race presumed to have existed on the earth prior to Adam; traditional first fathers of the Jews.
Precession of the Equinoxes, name given to the gradual shifting of the equinoctial points along the ecliptic from east to west. See Equinoxes.
Précieuses Ridicules, a play of Molière's, published in 1653, directed against the affectations of certain literary coteries of the day.
Predestination, the eternal decree which in particular foreordains certain of the human family to life everlasting and others to death everlasting, or the theological dogma which teaches these. See Election, the Doctrine of.
Predicables, the five classes of terms which can be predicated of a subject, viz.—genus, containing species; species, contained in a genus; differentia, distinguishing one species from another; property, quality possessed by every member of a species; and accident, attribute belonging to certain individuals of a species and not others.
Pregel, a navigable river in E. Prussia, 120 m. long and 730 ft. broad, which falls into the Frische Haff below Königsberg.
Prejevalski, Nicholas, Russian explorer, born in Smolensk; joined the army, served against the Poles in 1861, and was appointed to Siberia in 1867; his first explorations were in the country S. of the Amur; in 1871-73 he travelled through Southern Mongolia from Pekin to the upper Yangtse-kiang region; thereafter his energies were devoted to Thibet; he made repeated unsuccessful attempts to reach Lhassa, exploring by the way the desert of Gobi and the upper Hoang-ho, and died finally at Karakol, in West Turkestan; he discovered the wild camel and wild horse, and brought back valuable zoological and botanical collections, which are now in St. Petersburg (1839-1888)
Pre-Raphaelitism, a movement headed by Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, of revolt against the style of art in vogue, traceable all the way back to Raphael, and of a bold return to the study of nature itself, agreeably to the advice of Ruskin, that “they should go to Nature in all singleness of heart, and walk with her laboriously and trustingly, having no other thought than how best to penetrate her meaning: rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing”; the principle of the movement, as having regard not merely to what the outer eye sees in an object, but to what the inner eye sees of objective truth and reality in it.
Presburg (52), the ancient capital of Hungary, close to the Austrian frontier, on the Danube, by rail 40 m. E. of Vienna; is a pleasant town, with a cathedral, a town-house, and a Franciscan church, all of the 13th century, the old Parliament House, and a ruined royal castle; manufactures beer, dynamite, and starch, and trades largely in live stock and corn.
Presbyopia, diminution of sight due to age, occurring usually about forty-five, when near objects are less distinctly seen than distant, an affliction due to the flattening of the lens.
Presbyterianism, that form of Church government which, discarding prelacy, regards all ministers in conclave as on the same level in rank and function, and which is the prevailing form of Church government in Scotland; inherited from Geneva, as also prevailing extensively in the United States of America. The government is administered by a gradation of courts, called “Kirk-Sessions,” of office-bearers in connection with a particular congregation; “Presbyteries,” in connection with a small district; “Synods,” in connection with a larger; and finally a General Assembly or a Synod of the whole Church, which, besides managing the affairs of the collective body, forms a court of final appeal in disputed matters or cases.
Prescott, William Hickling, American historian, born at Salem, Massachusetts; son of a lawyer; graduated at Harvard in 1814, and applied himself to study law; by-and-by he travelled in Europe, married, and turned to literature as a profession; growing blind, the result of an accident at college, he fortunately inherited means, employed assistants, and with great courage in 1826 began to study Spanish history. “Ferdinand and Isabella” appearing in 1838, established his reputation in both worlds; “The Conquest of Mexico” was published in 1843, and “The Conquest of Peru” in 1847; he was elected corresponding member of the French Institute; his style is vivid, direct, and never dull; though not philosophical, his histories are masterpieces of narrative and incident; he died of apoplexy at Boston before completing the “History of Philip II.” (1796-1859).
Present Time, defined impressively by Carlyle as “the youngest born of Eternity, child and heir of all the past times, with their good and evil, and parent of all the future with new questions and significance,” on the right or wrong understanding of which depend the issues of life or death to us all, the sphinx riddle given to all of us to rede as we would live and not die.
President of the United States, is popularly elected for four years, or rather by delegates so elected to each State, and sometimes re-elected for other four; is commander-in-chief of the army and navy; sees to the administration of the laws, signs bills before they pass into law, makes treaties, grants reprieves and pardons, and receives an annual salary of 50,000 dollars.
Press-Gang, a party armed with powers to impress men into the naval service in times of emergency, a practice which often gave rise to serious disturbances, and is not in any circumstances likely to be had recourse to again. See Impressment.
Pressensé, Edmond de, eminent French Protestant theologian, born at Luasanne, in Paris; studied under Vinet and Neander at Berlin; became Protestant minister in Paris; was elected a deputy in the National Assembly in 1871, and a senator in 1883; wrote a “Life of Christ,” and on numerous subjects of theological and ecclesiastical interest (1824-1891).
Prester, John. See John, Prester.
Preston (112), Lancashire manufacturing town on the Ribble, 31 m. N W. of Manchester; is a well laid out brick town, with three parks, a magnificent town-hall, a market, public baths, free library, museum, and picture-gallery; St. Walburge's Roman Catholic church has the highest post-Reformation steeple in England, 306 ft. The deepening of the river and construction of docks have added to the shipping trade. The chief industry is cotton, but there are also shipbuilding yards, engineer shops, and foundries. One of Cromwell's victories was won here; it was the birthplace of Richard Arkwright, and the scene of the beginning of the English total abstinence movement in 1832.
Pretenders, The, the names given to the son and the grandson of James II. (Prince Charlie) as claiming a right to the throne of England, and called respectively the Elder and the Younger Pretender; the elder, who made one or two attempts to secure his claim, surrendered it to his son, who in 1745 was defeated at Culloden.
Pretoria (whites, 10), capital of the Transvaal, stands on a mountain-enclosed plain 1000 m. NE. of Cape Town, and nearly 300 m. W. of Lorenzo Marquez, Delagoa Bay, with both of which and with Natal it is connected by rail. It is a thriving town, growing rapidly with flourishing trade, the see of a bishop, and containing twenty English schools. Coal is found near, and wheat, tobacco, cotton, and indigo grown. It is the seat of the government of the Transvaal.
Prévost d'Exiles, Antoine François, or Abbé Prévost, a French romancer, born in Heslin, Artois; was educated by the Jesuits, and became a Benedictine monk, but proving refractory, fled to Holland and England; wrote several novels, but his fame rests on one entitled “Manon Lescaut,” a work of genius, charming at once in matter and style; a “story,” says Professor Saintsbury, “chiefly remarkable for the perfect simplicity and absolute life-likeness of the character-drawing”; derives its name from the subject of it, a young girl named Manon (1697-1763).
Prévost-Paradol, Lucien Anatole, French littérateur and publicist, born in Paris; distinguished himself as journalist and essayist; was an enemy of the Empire, but accepted a post under Ollivier as envoy to the United States in 1870, and committed suicide at Washington almost immediately after landing; it was on the eve of the Franco-German War, and he had been the subject of virulent attacks from the republican press of the day (1829-1870).
Priam, the old king of Troy during the Trojan War; was the son of Laomedon, who with the help of Apollo and Poseidon built the city; had a large family by his wife Hecuba, Hector, Paris, and Cassandra, the most noted of them; was too old to take part in the war; is said to have fallen by the hand of Pyrrhus on the capture of Troy by the Greeks.
Priapus, an ancient deity, the personification of the generating or fructifying power, and worshipped as the protector of flocks of sheep and goats, of bees, of the vine and other garden products; a worship known as the Priapus worship prevailed extensively all over the East.
Price, Richard, English moralist, born in Glamorganshire; wrote on politics and economics as well as ethics, in which last he followed Cudworth (q. v.), and insisted on the unimpeachable quality of moral distinctions, and the unimpeachable authority of the moral sentiments (1723-1791).
Prichard, James Cowles, founder of ethnology and a philologist, born in Hereford; bred to medicine, and practised in Bristol; wrote “Researches into the Physical History of Mankind,” “The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations,” “Analysis of Egyptian Mythology,” and the “Natural History of Man”; maintained the original unity of the race, and that the original pair were negroes; philology was in his hands the handmaid of ethnology, and he made himself master of the primitive languages (1786-1848).
Prideaux, Humphrey, English prelate and scholar; remembered chiefly as the author of a learned work entitled “The Connection of the History of the Old and New Testaments”; wrote a “Life of Mahomet,” popular in its day and for long after (1648-1724).
Pride's Purge, the name given to a violent exclusion, in 1649, at the hands of a body of troops commanded by Colonel Pride of about a hundred members of the House of Commons disposed to deal leniently with the king, after which some eighty, known as the Rump, were left to deal with his Majesty and bring him to justice.
Priessnitz, founder of the water-cure, in connection with which he had a large establishment at Gräfenberg, in Austrian Silesia; was a mere empiric, having been bred to farming (1799-1851).
Priest, properly a man in touch with the religious life of the people, and for the most part consecrated to mediate between them and the Deity; the prophet, on the other hand, being one more in touch with the Deity, being at times so close to Him as to require a priest to mediate between him and the laity.
Priestley, Joseph, a Socinian divine, born near Leeds; wrote in defence of Socinianism, and in defence of Christianity; gave himself to physical research, particularly pneumatic chemistry; is claimed as the discoverer of oxygen; sympathised with the French Revolution; was mobbed, and had to flee to America, where he died, believing in immortality despite his materialistic philosophy (1733-1804).
Prim, Juan, a Spanish general; distinguished as a statesman; rose to be Minister of War, but aspiring to dictatorship, was shot by an assassin; he was the leader of the movement that overthrew Isabella in 1868 and installed Amadeo in her stead (1814-1870).
Primrose, the name of a family in Goldsmith's “Vicar of Wakefield.”
Primrose League, a politico-Conservative organisation founded in 1883 in memory of Lord Beaconsfield, and so called because the primrose was popularly reported to be his favourite flower. It includes a large membership, nearly a million, comprising women as well as men; is divided into district habitations; confers honours and badges in the style of Freemasonry, and has extensive political influence under a grand-master.
Prince Edward Island (109), an island province of Canada, in the S. of Gulf of St. Lawrence, occupies a great bay formed by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton, and is somewhat larger than Northumberland. The coast-line is exceedingly broken, the surface low and undulating, and very fertile. The chief industry is agriculture, oats and potatoes are the best crops; decayed shells found in beds on the shore are an excellent manure; sheep and horses are raised with great success. The climate is healthy, milder and clearer than on the mainland, but with a tedious winter. Coal exists, but is not wrought. The fisheries are the best on the Gulf, but are not developed. Manufactures are inconsiderable. Discovered by the Cabots, it was settled by the French in 1715, and ceded to Great Britain in 1763. Constituted a province in 1768, the name was changed from St. John to Prince Edward in 1799. Since 1875 the local government have bought out most of the great proprietors, and resold the land to occupying owners. Education is free. There are normal schools and two colleges. Half the people are Roman Catholics. A railway traverses the island, and there is daily steam communication with the mainland. The capital is Charlottetown (13); Summerside, Georgetown, and Sourio are the other towns.
Prince of Peace, a title given by Charles IV. of Spain to his Prime Minister, Don Manuel Godoy (q. v.).
Princeton (3), a town of New Jersey, 50 m. SW. of New York; was the scene of a battle in the War of Independence, and the meeting-place of the Continental Congress of 1783; now noted as the seat of the College of New Jersey, founded at Newark 1746, and removed to Princeton ten years later, with now 50 teachers and 600 students; Jonathan Edwards and Dr. James M'Cosh as presidents, James Madison and others as alumni, have given it lustre. The Theological Seminary, the oldest and largest Presbyterian one in the States, was founded in 1812, and a School of Science in 1871. The college is rich in museums, observatories, laboratories, libraries, and funds.
Pringle, Thomas, minor poet, born in Roxburghshire; edited the Monthly Magazine; emigrated to South Africa; held a small government appointment; was bullied out of it; returned home, and became Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society (1789-1834).
Printed Paper, Carlyle's satirical name for the literature of France prior to the Revolution.
Prinzenraub (the stealing of the princes), name given to an attempt, to satisfy a private grudge of his, on the part of Kunz von Kaufingen to carry off, on the night of the 7th July 1455, two Saxon princes from the castle of Altenburg, in which he was defeated by apprehension at the hands of a collier named Schmidt, through whom he was handed over to justice and beheaded. See Carlyle's account of this in his “Miscellanies.”
Prior, Matthew, English poet and diplomatist, born near Wimborne, East Dorset; studied at Cambridge; became Fellow of Trinity College; was ambassador to France; involved himself in an intrigue, was imprisoned, and on his release lived in retirement; he is remembered as a poet; wrote in 1687 a parody of Dryden's “Hind and Panther,” entitled “The Story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse,” and afterwards, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World,” “Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind,” after Butler, as well as tales, lyrics, and epigrams; Professor Saintsbury calls him “the king of 'verse of society'” (1664-1721).
Priscian, Latin grammarian of the 6th century, born in Cæsarea; was author of “Grammatical Commentaries” in 18 books, a standard work during the Middle Ages, and in universal use at that time.
Priscillian, a Spaniard of noble birth, who introduced a Gnostic and Manichæan heresy into Spain, and founded a sect called after him, and was put to death by the Emperor Maximius in 385; his followers were an idly speculative sect, who practised a rigidly ascetic style of life, and after being much calumniated did not survive him over 60 years.
Prismatic colours, the seven colours a ray of pure white light is resolved into when refracted through a prism, applied figuratively by Carlyle to the pure light refracted through the soul of a man of genius.
Prisoner of Chillon, the name given to François de Bonivard (q. v.), who was for six years kept prisoner in the castle of Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva, and is the subject of a well-known poem by Byron.
Privateer, a private vessel licensed by Government under a letter of marque to seize and plunder the ships of an enemy, otherwise an act of the kind is treated as piracy.
Privy Council, is theoretically a council associated with the sovereign to advise him in matters of government. As at present constituted it includes the members of the royal family, the Cabinet, the two archbishops and the bishop of London, the principal English and Scotch judges, some of the chief ambassadors and governors of colonies, the Commander-in-Chief, the First Lord of the Admiralty, &c. No members attend except those summoned, usually the Cabinet, the officers of the Household, and the Primate. The functions of the Privy Council may be grouped as: (1) executive, in which its duties are discharged by the Cabinet, which is technically a committee of the Privy Council; (2) administrative—the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, and the Board of Agriculture originated in committees; the Education Department is still a committee, and the Council retains such branches as the supervision of medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary practice, the granting of municipal charters, &c.; (3) judicial—the Judicial Committee is a court of law, whose principal function is the hearing of appeals from ecclesiastical courts and from Indian and colonial courts.
Privy Seal, the seal of the sovereign appended to grants that do not require to pass the great seal.
Probus, Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor from 276 to 282, born in Pannonia; having distinguished himself in the field as a soldier, was elected by the army and the citizens to succeed Tacitus; defended the empire successfully against all encroachments, and afterwards devoted himself to home administration, but requiring the service of the soldiers in public works, which they considered degrading, was seized by a body of them compelled so to drudge, and put to death.
Proclus, a Neo-Platonic philosopher, born in Constantinople; appears to have held a Trinitarian view of the universe, and to have regarded the All abstractly viewed as contained in the Divine ever emerging from it and returning into it, a doctrine Implied in John i. 1, but far short of the corresponding trinity in the ripe philosophy of Hegel (412-485).
Proconsul, name given to the governor of a Roman province who was absolute ruler of it, disposed of the army, dispensed justice, controlled administration, and was represented by legates.
Procop, the name of two Hussite leaders of the Taborites, who after leading successful forays on all hands from their head-quarters in Bohemia, fell in battle with their rivals the Calixtines at Lippau in 1434.
Procopius, a Greek historian, born at Cæsarea, the secretary of Belisarius, and author of a History of the Wars of Justinian, which is still the chief authority for the events of his reign; d. 565.
Procrustes, a brigand of ancient Attica, who when any one fell into his hands placed him on a bed, stretching him out if he was too short for it and amputating him if he was too long till he died; he was one day overpowered by Theseus, who tortured him to death as he had done his own victims; his practice has given name to any attempt to enforce conformity by violent measures.
Procter, Bryan Walter, English lyrist, known by his pseudonym as Barry Cornwall, born in London; was bred to the bar, and was for 30 years a Commissioner of Lunacy, and is chiefly memorable as the friend of all the eminent literary men of two generations, such as Wordsworth, Lamb, and Scott on the one hand and Carlyle, Thackeray, and Tennyson on the other; he was no great poet (1787-1874).
Proctor, Richard Antony, astronomer and lecturer on Astronomy; determined the rotation of the planet Mars, and propounded the theory of the solar corona (1837-1888).
Procurator-Fiscal, is a Scottish law officer appointed by the sheriff, and irremovable on efficient and good behaviour, whose duties are to initiate the prosecution of crimes and inquire into deaths under suspicious circumstances.
Progne, the sister of Philomela and wife of Tereus, changed into a swallow by the gods. See Tereus.
Progress of the Species Magazines, Carlyle's name for the literature of the day which does nothing to help the progress in question, but keeps idly boasting of the fact, taking all the credit to itself, like Æsop's fly on the axle of the careering chariot soliloquising, “What a dust I raise!”
Prohibitionist, one who would prohibit the sale of all intoxicating liquors.
Proletariat, the name given to the lowest and poorest class in the State, and which still retains the original Roman meaning, as denoting, from proles, offspring, one who enriches the State not by his prosperity, but by his progeny.
Prometheus (i. e. Forethought), a Titan, the son of lapetus and Klymene, and the brother of Epimetheus (q. v.), who, when the gods, just installed on Olympus, met with men at Mekone to arrange with them as to their dues in sacrifice, came boldly forth as the representative and protector of the human race and slew a bullock in sacrifice, putting the flesh of it in one pile and the entrails with the bones in another, veiled temptingly with fat, and invited Zeus to make his choice, whereupon, knowing well what he was about, Zeus chose the latter, but in revenge took away with him the fire which had been bestowed by the gods upon mortals. It was a strife of wit versus wit, and Prometheus, as the defender of the rights of man, was not to be outwitted even by the gods, so he reached up a hollow fennel stalk to the sun and brought the fire back again, whereupon the strife was transformed into one of force versus force, and Zeus caught the audacious Titan and chained him to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle gnawed all day at his liver which grew again by night, though, in inflicting this punishment, Zeus was soon visited with a relenting heart, for it was by express commission from him that Hercules, as a son of his, scaled the rock and slew the eagle. The myth is one of the deepest significance, reflecting an old belief, and one which has on it the seal of Christ, as sanctioned of Heaven, that the world was made for man and not man for the world, only there is included within it an expression of the jealousy with which Heaven watches the use mankind make of the gifts that, out of her own special store, she bestows upon them. Prometheus is properly the incarnation of the divine fire latent from the beginning in the soul of man.
Propaganda, a congregation, as it is called, at Rome, originated by Gregory XIII., and organised in 1622 by Gregory XV., the object of which is to propagate the faith of the Church among heathen nations and in countries where there is no established hierarchy, connected with which there is a college at Rome called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, where pupils are instructed for different fields of missionary enterprise.
Propertius, Sextus, a Latin elegaic poet, born in Umbria; went to Rome and became a protégé of Mæcenas; devoted himself to the cultivation of the poetic art; came under the spell of a gifted lady, to whom, under the name of Cynthia, he dedicated the first products of his muse, and whom he has immortalised in his poems; in his elegies he follows Greek models; his poetry, and the poetic quality it displays, have been much admired by Goethe (51-14 B.C.).
Prophecy, properly not a forecasting of particular events and the succession of them, but so far as it refers to the future at all is an insight into the course of things in the time to come from insight into the course of them in days gone by or now, and that is believed to be the character of Hebrew prophecy, founded on faith in the immutability of the divine order of things.
Prophets. See Priests, Hebrew Prophecy.
Proselytes, converts from heathenism to Judaism, of which there were two classes: Proselytes of the Temple, those who accepted the ceremonial law and were admitted into the inner court of The temple; and Proselytes of the Gate, who accepted only the moral law, and were admitted only into the outer court. They were a numerous class after the Dispersion, and were reckoned at hundreds of thousands.
Proserpina, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who was carried off while gathering flowers by Pluto (q. v.), became Queen of Hades, and is represented as sitting on an ebony throne beside him wearing a crown. According to later tradition Pluto had to allow her to revisit the upper world for two-thirds of the year to compromise matters with her mother, her arrival being coincident with the beginning of spring and her return to Hades coincident with the beginning of winter. She became by Pluto the mother of the Furies.
Prospero, one of the chief characters in Shakespeare's “Tempest,” an exiled king of Milan, who, during his exile, practises magic, and breaks his wand when he has accomplished his purpose.
Protagoras, one of the earliest of the Greek Sophists, born at Abdera, and who flourished in 440 B.C., and taught at Athens, from which he was banished as a blasphemer, as having called in question the existence of the gods; he taught that man was the measure of all things, of those that exist, that they are; and of those things that do not exist, that they are not; and that there is nothing absolute, that all is an affair of subjective conception.
Protection, name given to the encouragement of certain home products of a country by imposing duties on foreign products of the class, opposed to free-trade.
Protestantism, the name given to a movement headed by Luther in the 16th century, in protestation of the supremacy in spiritual things claimed by the Church of Rome, and made on the ground of the authority of conscience enlightened by the Word of God, conceived of as the ultimate revelation of God to man.
Protestants, a name given to the adherents of Luther, who, at the second Diet of Spires in 1529, protested against the revocation of certain privileges granted at the first Diet in 1526.
Proteus, in the Greek mythology a divinity of the sea endowed with the gift of prophecy, but from whom it was difficult to extort the secrets of fate, as he immediately changed his shape when any one attempted to force him, for it was only in his proper form he could enunciate these secrets.
Protogenes, a Greek painter of the time of Alexander the Great, born in Caria; lived chiefly at Rhodes; was discovered by Apelles, who brought him into note; his masterpiece is a picture of Ialysus, the tutelary hero of Rhodes, on which he spent seven years, and which he painted four times over.
Protoplasm, a name given to presumed living matter forming the physical bases of all forms of animal and vegetable life; the term is now superseded by the term bioplasm. See Dr. Stirling, “As Regards Protoplasm.”
Proudhon, Pierre Joseph, French Socialist, born at Besançon, the son of a cooper; worked in a printing establishment, spent his spare hours in study, specially of the social problem, and in 1840 published a work entitled “What is Property?” and in which he boldly enunciated the startling proposition, “Property is theft”; for the publication of this thesis he was at first unmolested, and only with its application was he called to account, and for which at last, in 1849, he was committed to prison, where, however, he kept himself busy with his pen, and whence he from time to time emitted socialistic publications till his release in 1852, after which he was in 1858 compelled to flee the country, to return again under an act of amnesty in 1860 and die; he was not only the assailant of property, but of government itself, and preached anarchy as the goal of all social progress and not the starting-point, as so many unfortunately fancy; but by anarchy, it would seem, he meant the right of government spiritually free, and, in the Christian sense of that expression, to exemption from all external control (see I Tim. i. 9) (1809-1865).
Prout, Samuel, eminent English water-colour artist, born at Plymouth; had from a child an irrepressible penchant for drawing, which, though discouraged at first by his father, was fostered by his schoolmaster; was patronised by Britton the antiquary, and employed by him to assist him in collecting materials for his “Beauties of England and Wales,” but it was not till his visit to Rouen in 1818 that he was first fascinated with the subject that henceforth occupied him; from this time excursions were continually made to the Continent, and every corner of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy ransacked for its fragments of carved stone; the old architecture that then fascinated him henceforth became a conspicuous feature in all his after-works; “the works of Prout,” says Ruskin, “will one day become memorials of the most precious of things that have been ... A time will come when that zeal will be understood, and his works will be cherished with a melancholy gratitude, when the pillars of Venice shall be mouldering in the salt shallows of her sea, and the stones of the goodly towers of Rouen have become ballast for the barges of the Seine” (1789-1852).
Prout, Father. See Mahony, Francis.
Provençal Language, one of the Romance dialects of France, spoken in the South of France, and different from that spoken in the N. as in closer connection with the original Latin than that of the N., which was modified by Teutonic influence.
Provence, a maritime province in the South of France, originally called Provincia by the Romans, and which included the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Basses-Alpes, Var, and part of Vaucluse.
Proverbs, Book Of, a book of the Hebrew Scriptures, full of the teachings of wisdom bearing on the conduct of life, and though ascribed to Solomon, obviously not all of his composition, or even collection, and probably ascribed to him because of his fondness for wisdom in that form, and from his having procured the first collection. The principles inculcated are purely ethical, resting, however, on a religious basis, and concern the individual not as a member of any particular community, but as a member of the human race; the lessons of life and death are the same as in the covenant with Moses, and the condition in both cases is the observance or non-observance of God's commandments. There is no change in the principle, but in the expansion of it, and that amounts to the foundation of a kingdom of God which shall include all nations. In them the bonds of Jewish exclusiveness are burst, and a catholic religion virtually established.
Providence (175), a seaport and semi-capital of Rhode Island, U.S., on a river of the name, 44 m. SW. of Boston; it is a centre of a large manufacturing district, and has a large trade in woollens, jewellery, and hardware; has a number of public buildings, and institutions, churches, schools, libraries, and hospitals, as well as beautiful villas and gardens.
Prudentius, Marcus Aurelius Clemens. Christian poet of the 4th century, born in Spain; after spending the greater part of his life in secular affairs, gave himself up to religious meditation, and wrote hymns, lyrics, and polemics in verse.
Prussia (24,690), the leading State of the German Empire, occupies about two-thirds of the imperial territory, and contributes three-fifths of the population; it stretches from Holland and Belgium in the W. to Russia in the E., has Jutland and the sea on the N., and Lorraine, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt, Saxony, and Austria on the S.; the SW. portion is hilly and the soil often poor, but containing valuable mineral deposits; the N. and E. belongs to the great European plain, devoted to agriculture and grazing; Hesse-Cassel is extremely fertile, and Nassau produces excellent wine; in the E. and in Hanover are extensive forests; Silesia, Westphalia, and Rhenish Prussia contain the chief coal-fields, and are consequently the chief industrial provinces; half the zinc of the world is mined in Prussia; lead, iron, copper, antimony, &c., are also wrought; the Hartz Mountains are noted for their mines; Salt, amber, and precious stones are found on the Baltic shores; textiles, metal wares, and beer are the main industries; Berlin and Elberfeld are the two chief manufacturing centres on the Continent; the great navigable rivers, Niemen, Vistula, Oder, Elbe, Weser, Rhine, and their tributaries and canals, excellent railways, and her central European position all favour Prussia's commerce, while her coast-line, harbours, and growing mercantile fleet put her in communication with the markets of the world; seven-eighths of the people are Germans; Slavonic races are represented by Poles, Wends, Lithuanians, and Czechs, while the Danes appear in Schleswig-Holstein; the prevailing religion is Protestant; education is compulsory and good; there are ten universities, and many great libraries and educational institutions; the Prussian is the largest contingent in the German army; the king of Prussia is emperor of Germany. The basis of the Prussian people was laid by German colonists placed amid the pagan Slavs whom they had conquered by the Teutonic knights of the 13th century; in 1511 their descendants chose a Hohenzollern prince; a century later the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg succeeded; despite the Thirty Years' War Prussia became a European State, and was recognised as a kingdom in 1703; Frederick the Great (1740-1786) enlarged its bounds and developed its resources; the successive partitions of Poland added to her territory; humiliated by the peace of Tilsit 1807, and ruined by the French occupation, she recovered after Waterloo; William I. and Bismarck still further increased her territory and prestige; by the Austrian War of 1866 and the French War of 1870-71 her position as premier State in the German Confederation was assured.
Prynne, William, a Puritan censor morum, born near Bath, bred to the bar; wrote a book or pamphlet called “Histrio-Mastix, or the Player's Scourge,” against the stage, for which and a reflection in it against the virtue of the queen he was brought before the Star Chamber in 1634, sentenced to the pillory, and had his ears cropped off, and for an offence against Laud, whether by order of the Star Chamber or not is uncertain, was in 1637 sentenced anew, and “lost his ears a second and final time, having had them 'sewed on again' before; this time a heroine on the scaffold,” adds Carlyle, “received them on her lap and kissed him”; after this the zeal of Prynne appears to have waxed cold, for he was as a recalcitrant imprisoned by Cromwell, after whose death he espoused the Royalist cause, and was appointed Keeper of the Records of the Tower (1600-1669).
Prytane`um, name given to the public hall in Greek cities, and the head-quarters of the Executive.
Psalmanazar, George, an impostor, born in the South of France, who, being brought to London, imposed on Compton, bishop of London, by fabricating a history of Formosa, of which he professed to be a native, but was convicted of the error of his ways by Law's “Serious Call,” and led afterwards what seemed a sober life, and one to commend the regard of Johnson (1679-1763).
Psalms, The Book of, the name given in the Septuagint to a collection of sacred songs in the Hebrew Bible, which are all of a lyrical character, and appear to have been at first collected for liturgical purposes. Their range is co-extensive with nearly all divine truth, and there are tones in them in accord with the experience and feelings of devout men in all ages. Nay, “the Psalter alone,” says Ruskin, “which practically was the service-book of the Church for many ages, contains, merely in the first half of it, the sum of personal and social wisdom,... while the 48th, 72nd, and 75th have in them the law and the prophecy of all righteous government, and every real triumph of natural science is anticipated in the 104th.” The collection bears the name of David, but it is clear the great body of them are of later date as well as of divers authorship, although it is often difficult to determine by whom some of them were written, and when. The determination of this, however, is of the less consequence, as the question is more a speculative one than a spiritual one, and whatever may be the result of inquiry in this matter now going on, the spiritual value of the Psalms, which is their real value, is nowise affected thereby. It matters nothing who wrote them or when they were written; they are there, are conceived from situations such as are obvious enough and common to the lot of all good men, and they bear on spiritual interests, which are our primary ones, and these, still, as in every other time, the alone really pressing ones. They express the real experiences of living men, who lay under an inner necessity to utter such a song, relieving themselves by the effort and ministering a means of relief to others in a like situation of soul.
Psyche (i. e. the soul), in the later Greek mythology the youngest of three daughters of a king, and of such beauty as to eclipse the attractions and awake the jealousy of Venus, the goddess of beauty, who in consequence sent Cupid, her son, to inspire her with love for a hideous monster, and so compass her ruin. Cupid, fascinated with her himself, spirited her away to a palace furnished with every delight, but instead of delivering her over to the monster, visited her himself at night as her husband, and left her before daybreak in the morning, because she must on no account know who he was. Here her sisters came to see her, and in their jealousy persuaded her to assure herself that it was not a monster that she slept with, so that she lit a lamp the next night to discover, when a drop of oil from it fell on his shoulder as he lay asleep beside her, upon which he at a bound started up and vanished out of sight. She thereupon gave way to a long wail of lamentation and set off a-wandering over the wide world in search of her lost love, till she came to the palace of Venus, her arch-enemy, who seized on her person and made her her slave, subjecting her to a series of services, all of which she accomplished to the letter, so that Venus was obliged to relent and consent that, in the presence of all the gods of Olympus, Cupid and she should be united in immortal wedlock. It is the story of the trials of the soul to achieve immortality. See “Stories from the Greek Mythology,” by the Editor.
Psychical Research, Society for, a society founded in 1882 to inquire into the phenomena of spiritualism and kindred subjects of a recondite kind, the subject of Telepathy having engaged recently a good deal of attention.
Ptolemaic System, the highly complex system of astronomy ascribed to Claudius Ptolemy, which assumed that the earth was the centre of a sphere which carried the heavenly bodies along in its daily revolution, accounted for the revolutions of the sun and moon by supposing they moved in eccentric circles round the earth, and regarded the planets as moving in epicycles round a point which itself revolved in an eccentric circle round the earth like the sun and moon.
Ptolemaïs, the name of certain cities of antiquity, the most celebrated being Acre, in Syria (q. v.).
Ptolemy, the name of the Macedonian kings of Egypt, of which there were 14 in succession, of whom Ptolemy I., Soter, was a favourite general of Alexander the Great, and who ruled Egypt from 328 to 285 B.C.; Ptolemy II., Philadelphus, who ruled from 285 to 247, a patron of letters and an able administrator; Ptolemy III., Euergetes, who ruled from 247 to 222; Ptolemy IV., Philopator, who ruled from 222 to 205; Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, who ruled from 205 to 181; Ptolemy VI., Philometor, who ruled from 181 to 146; Ptolemy VII., Euergetes II., who ruled from 146 to 117; Ptolemy VIII., Soter, who ruled from 117 to 107, was driven from Alexandria, returning to it in 88, and reigning till 81; Ptolemy X., Alexander I., who ruled from 107 to 88; Ptolemy X. Alexander II., who ruled from 81 to 80; Ptolemy XI., Auletes, who ruled from 80 to 51; Ptolemy XII., who ruled from 51 to 47; Ptolemy XIII., the Infant King, who ruled from 47 to 43; Ptolemy XIV., Cesarion, the son of Julius Cæsar and Cleopatra, who ruled from 43 to 30.
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemæus), ancient astronomer and geographer, born in Egypt; lived in Alexandria in the 2nd century; was the author of the system of astronomy called after him; left behind him two writings bearing one on astronomy and one on geography, along with other works of inferior importance.
Publicans or Publicani, a name given by the Romans to persons who farmed the public revenues; specially a class of the Jewish people, often mentioned in the New Testament, and specially odious to the rest of the community as the farmers of the taxes imposed upon them, mostly at the instance of their foreign oppressors the Romans, and in the collection of which they had recourse to the most unjust exactions. They were in their regard not merely the tools of a foreign oppression, but traitors to their country and apostates from the faith of their fathers, and were to be classed, as they were, with heathens, sinners, and harlots.
Puccinotti, Francesco, eminent Italian pathologist, born in Urbino, and author of the “Storia delle Medicina” (History of Medicine), the fruit of the labour of twenty years (1794-1872).
Pucelle La (i. e. the Maid), Joan of Arc, the maid par excellence.
Puck, a tricky, mischievous fairy, identified with Robin Goodfellow, and sometimes confounded with a house spirit, propitiated by kind words and the liberty of the cream-bowl.
Puebla (79), on an elevated plateau 7000 ft. above the sea, 68 m. due SE. of Mexico, is the third city of the republic, and a beautiful town, with Doric cathedral, theological, medical, and other schools, a museum, and two libraries; cotton goods, iron, paper, and glass are manufactured; it is a commercial city, and carries on a brisk trade. Is the name also of a Colorado town (24) on the Arkansas River; it is in a rich mineral district, and is engaged in the manufacture of steel and iron wares.
Puerto de Santa Maria (22), a seaport in Spain, on the Bay of Cadiz, 9 m. SW. of Xeres, and the chief place of export of Xeres port or sherry wines.
Puerto Plata (15), the chief port of the Dominican Republic, on the N. of Hayti; exports tobacco, sugar, coffee, &c.
Puerto Principe (46), a town on the E. of Cuba; manufactures cigars, and exports sugar, hides, and molasses; originally on the shore, but removed inland.
Puffendorf, Samuel, Baron von, eminent German jurist, born at Chemnitz, Saxony; wrote several works on jurisprudence, one of which, under the ban of Austria, was burned there by the hangman, but his “De Jure Naturæ et Gentium” is the one on which his fame rests; was successively in the service of Charles XI. of Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburg (1632-1694).
Pugin, Augustus Welby, architect, born in London, of French parentage; made a special study of Gothic architecture; assisted in decorating the new Houses of Parliament, but becoming a Roman Catholic he gave himself to designing a good number of Roman Catholic churches, including cathedrals; he wrote several works on architecture, and was the chief promoter of the “Mediæval Court” in the Crystal Palace; he was afflicted in the prime of life with insanity, and died at Ramsgate (1812-1852).
Pulci, Luini, Italian poet, born at Florence; the personal friend of Lorenzo de' Medici, and the author of a burlesque poem of which Roland is the hero, entitled in Tuscan “Il Morgante Maggiore” (“Morgante the Great”); he wrote also several humorous sonnets; two brothers of his had similar gifts (1432-1484).
Pulque, a favourite beverage of the Mexicans and in Central America, from the fermented juice of the agave.
Pulteney, William, Earl of Bath, English statesman; in 1705 entered Parliament zealous in the Whig interest; was for years the friend and colleague of Walpole, but afterwards, from a slight, became his bitterest enemy and most formidable opponent; he contributed a good deal to his fall, but, unable to take his place, contented himself with a peerage, his popularity being gone (1682-1764).
Pultowa (43), a town in Southern Russia, 90 m. by rail SW. of Kharkoff, on an affluent of the Dnieper; manufactures leather and tobacco; here Peter the Great won his victory over Charles XII. of Sweden in 1709.
Pultusk, a Polish town, 33 m. N. of Warsaw; here Charles XII. gained a victory over the Saxons in 1703, and the French over the Russians in 1806.
Pulu, a kind of silk obtained from the fibres of a fern-tree of Hawaii.
Punch, the name of the chief character in a well-known puppet show of Italian origin, and appropriated as the title of the leading English comic journal, which is accompanied with illustrations conceived in a humorous vein and conducted in satire, from a liberal Englishman's standpoint, of the follies and weaknesses of the leaders of public opinion and fashion in modern social life. It was started in 1841 under the editorship of Henry Mayhew and Mark Lemon; and the wittiest literary men of the time as well as the cleverest artists have contributed to its pages, enough to mention of the former Thackeray, Douglas Jerrold, and Tom Hood, and of the latter Doyle, Leech, Tenniel, Du Maurier, and Lindley Sambourne.
Pundit, a Brahmin learned in Sanskrit and in the language, literature, and laws of the Hindus.
Punic Faith, a plighted promise that one can put no trust in, such as the Romans alleged they systematically had experience of at the hands of the Poeni or Carthaginians.
Punic Wars, the name given to the wars between Rome and Carthage for the empire of the world, of date, the first from 264 to 241, the second from 218 to 201, and the third from 149 to 146 B.C., due all to transgressions on the one side or the other of boundaries fixed by treaty, which it was impossible for either in their passion of empire to respect. It was a struggle which, though it ended in the overthrow of Carthage, proved at one time the most critical in the history of Rome.
Punjab (25,130), “five rivers,” a province in the extreme NW. of India, watered by the Indus and its four tributaries, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravee, and Sutlej; its frontiers touch Afghanistan and Cashmir. Mountain ranges traverse the N., W., and S; little rain falls; the plains are dry and hot in summer. There is little timber, cow-dung is common fuel; the soil is barren, but under irrigation there are fertile stretches; wheat, indigo, sugar, cotton, tobacco, opium, and tea are largely grown; cotton, silk, lace, iron, and leather are manufactured; indigo, grain, cotton, and manufactured products are exported in exchange for raw material, dyes, horses, and timber. The population is mixed, Sikhs, Jats, and Rajputs predominate; more than a half are Mohammedan, and more than a third Hindu. Lahore is the capital, but Delhi and Amritsar are larger towns. Several railways run through the province. The natives remained loyal throughout the Mutiny of 1857-58, Sikhs and Pathans joining the British troops before Delhi.
Puránas, a body of religious works which rank second to the Vedas, and form the basis of the popular belief of the Hindus. There are 18 principal Puránas and 18 secondary Puránas, of various dates, but believed to be of remote antiquity, though modern critical research proves that in their present form they are not of very ancient origin.
Purbeck, Isle of, the peninsula in South Dorsetshire lying between the river Frome, Poole Harbour, and the English Channel; formerly a royal deer-forest; has a precipitous coast, and inland consists of chalk downs; nearly 100 quarries are wrought of “Purbeck marble.”
Purcell, Henry, eminent English musician, born at Westminster; was successively organist at Westminster Abbey and to the Chapel Royal; excelled in all forms of musical composition; was the author of anthems, cantatas, glees, &c., which attained great popularity; he set the songs of Shakespeare's “Tempest” to music (1658-1695).
Purchas, Samuel, collector of works of travel and continuator of the work of Hakluyt, in two curious works entitled “Purchas his Pilgrimage,” and “Hakluyt's his Posthumous, or Purchas his Pilgrimmes,” and was rector of St. Martin's, Ludgate, and chaplain to Archbishop Abbot (1577-1626).
Purgatorio, region in Dante's “Commedia” intermediate between the Inferno, region of lost souls, and the Paradiso, region of saved souls, and full of all manner of obstructions which the penitent, who would pass from the one to the other, must struggle with in soul-wrestle till he overcome, the most Christian section, thinks Carlyle, of Dante's poem.
Purgatory, in the creed of the Church of Rome a place in which the souls of the dead, saved from hell by the death of Christ, are chastened and purified from venial sins, a result which is, in great part, ascribed to the prayers of the faithful and the sacrifice of the Mass. The creed of the Church in this matter was first formulated by Gregory the Great, and was based by him, as it has been vindicated since, on passages of Scripture as well as the writings of the Fathers. The conception of it, as wrought out by Dante, Carlyle considers “a noble embodiment of a true noble thought.” See his “Heroes.”
Purim, the Feast of, or Lots, an annual festival of the Jews in commemoration of the preservation, as recorded in “Esther,” of their race from the threatened wholesale massacre of it in Persia at the instance of Haman, and which was so called because it was by casting “lots” that the day was fixed for the execution of the purpose. It lasts two days, being observed on the 14th and 15th of the month Adar.
Puritan City, name given to Boston, U.S., from its founders and inhabitants who were originally of Puritan stock.
Puritans, a name given to a body of clergymen of the Church of England who refused to assent to the Act of Uniformity passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, because it required them to conform to Popish doctrine and ritual; and afterwards applied to the whole body of Nonconformists in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, who insisted on rigid adherence to the simplicity prescribed in these matters by the sacred Scriptures. In the days of Cromwell they were, “with musket on shoulder,” the uncompromising foes of all forms, particularly in the worship of God, that affected to be alive after the soul had gone out of them.
Pursuivant, one of the junior officers in the Heralds' College, four in England, named respectively Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Rouge Dragon, and Portcullis; and three in Scotland, named respectively Bute, Carrick, and Unicorn.
Pusey, Edward Bouverie, English theologian, born in Berkshire, of Flemish descent; studied at Christ's Church, Oxford, and became a Fellow of Oriel, where he was brought into relationship with Newman, Keble, and Whately; spent some time in Germany studying Rationalism, and, after his return, was in 1828 appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford; in 1833 he joined the Tractarian Movement, to which he contributed by his learning, and which, from his standing in the University, as well as from the part he played in it, was at length called by his name; he was not so conspicuous as other members of the movement, but he gained some notoriety by a sermon he preached on the Eucharist, which led to his suspension for three years, and notwithstanding his life of seclusion, he took an active part in all questions affecting the interests he held to be at stake; he was the author of several learned works, among them the “Minor Prophets, a Commentary,” and “Daniel the Prophet” (1800-1882).
Puseyism, defined by Carlyle to be “a noisy theoretic demonstration and laudation of the Church, instead of some unnoisy, unconscious, but practical, total, heart-and-soul demonstration of a Church, ... a matter to strike one dumb,” and apropos to which he asks pertinently, “if there is no atmosphere, what will it serve a man to demonstrate the excellence of lungs?”
Pushkin, a distinguished Russian poet, considered the greatest, born at Moscow; his chief works are “Ruslan and Liudmila” (a heroic poem), “Eugene Onegin” (a romance), and “Boris Godunov” (a drama); was mortally wounded in a duel (1799-1837).
Pushtoo or Pushto, the language of the Afghans, said to be derived from the Zend, with admixtures from the neighbouring tribes.
Puteaux (17), a suburb of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, a favourite residence of the Parisians, who have villas here.
Putney (18), a London suburb on the Surrey side, 6 m. from Waterloo, has a bridge across the Thames 300 yards long; the parish church tower dates from the 15th century. The river here affords favourite rowing water, the starting-place of the inter-universities boat-race; Putney Heath was a favourite duelling resort; Gibbon was a native; Pitt and Leigh Hunt died here.
Puy, Le (20), a picturesque town, 70 m. SW. of Lyons, a bishop's seat, with a 10th-century cathedral; is the centre of a great lace manufacture.
Puy-du-Dôme (564), a department in Central France, in the upper valley of the Allier, on the slopes of the Auvergne Mountains. The soil is poor, but agriculture and cattle-breeding are the chief industries; in the mountains coal and lead are found, and there are many mineral springs; there are paper and oil manufactures. The principal town is Clermont-Ferrand (45), where Peter the Hermit preached the first crusade.
Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, is said to have fallen in love with an ivory statue of a maiden he had himself made, and to have prayed Aphrodité to breathe life into it. The request being granted, he married the maiden and became by her the father of Paphus.
Pygmies, a fabulous people, their height 13½ inches, mentioned by Homer as dwelling on the shores of the ocean and attacked by cranes in spring-time, the theme of numerous stories.
Pym, John, Puritan statesman, born in Somersetshire, educated at Oxford; bred to law, entered Parliament in 1621, opposed the arbitrary measures of the king, took a prominent part in the impeachment of Buckingham; at the opening of the Long Parliament procured the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford, and conducted the proceedings against him; he was one of the five members illegally arrested by Charles I., and was brought back again in triumph to Westminster; was appointed Lieutenant of the Ordnance, and a month after died (1584-1643).
Pyramids, ancient structures of stone or sometimes brick, resting generally on square bases and tapering upwards with triangular sides, found in different parts of the world, but chiefly in Egypt, where they exist to the number of 70 or 80, and of which the most celebrated are those of Ghizeh, 10 m. W. of Cairo, three in number, viz., the Great Pyramid of Cheop, 449 ft. high, and the sides at base 746 ft. long, that named Chefren, nearly the same size, and that of Mykerinos, not half the height of the other two, but excelling them in beauty of execution. The original object of these structures has been matter of debate, but there seems to be now no doubt that they are sepulchral monuments of kings of Egypt from the first to the twelfth dynasty of them.
Pyramus and Thisbe, two lovers who lived in adjoining houses in Babylon, and who used to converse with each other through a hole in the wall, because their parents would not allow them open intimacy, but who arranged to meet one evening at the tomb of Nisus. The maiden appearing at the spot and being confronted by a lioness who had just killed an ox, took to flight and left her garment behind her, which the lioness had soiled with blood. Pyramus arriving after this saw only the bloody garment on the spot and immediately killed himself, concluding she had been murdered, while she on return finding him lying in his blood, threw herself upon his dead body and was found a corpse at his side in the morning.
Pyrene, a crystalline substance obtained from coal tar, fats, &c.
Pyrenees, a broad chain of lofty mountains running from the Bay of Biscay, 276 m. eastwards, to the Mediterranean, form the boundary between France and Spain. They are highest in the centre, Mount Maladetta reaching 11,168 ft. The snow-line is about 8000 or 9000 ft., and there are glaciers on the French side. Valleys run up either side, ending in precipitous “pot-holes,” with great regularity. The passes are very dangerous from wind and snow storms. The streams to the N. feed the Adour and Garonne; those to the S., the Ebro and Douro. Vegetation in the W. is European, in the E. sub-tropical. Minerals are few, though both iron and coal are worked. The basis of the system is granite with limestone strata superimposed.
Pyroxyline, an explosive substance obtained by steeping vegetable fibre in nitro-sulphuric acid and drying after it is washed.
Pyrrha, in Greek mythology the wife of Deucalion (q. v.).
Pyrrhic Dance, the chief war-dance of the Greeks, of quick, light movement to the music of flutes; was of Cretan or Spartan origin. It was subsequently danced for display by the Athenian youths and by women to entertain company, and in the Roman empire was a favourite item in the public games.
Pyrrho, the father of the Greek sceptics, born in Elis, a contemporary of Aristotle; his doctrine was, that as we cannot know things as they are, only as they seem to be, we must be content to suspend our judgment on such matters and maintain a perfect imperturbability of soul if we would live to any good.
Pyrrhonism, philosophic scepticism. See Pyrrho.
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and kinsman of Alexander the Great; essayed to emulate the Macedonian by conquering the western World, and in 280 B.C. invaded Italy with a huge army, directed to assist the Italian Greeks against Rome; in the decisive battles of that year and the next, he won “Pyrrhic victories” over the Romans, losing so many men that he could not pursue his advantage; 278 to 276 he spent helping the Greek colonies in Sicily against Carthage; his success was not uniform, and a Carthaginian fleet inflicted a serious defeat on his fleet returning to Italy; in 274 he was thoroughly vanquished by the Romans, and retired to Epirus; subsequent wars against Sparta and Argos were marked by disaster; in the latter he was killed by a tile thrown by a woman (318-272 B.C.).
Pyrrhus, called also Neoptolemus, son of Achilles; was one of the heroes concealed in the wooden horse by means of which Troy was entered, slew Priam by the altar of Zeus, and sacrificed Polyxena to the manes of his father. Andromache, the widow of Hector, fell to him on the division of the captives after the fall of Troy, and became his wife.
Pythagoras, a celebrated Greek philosopher and founder of a school named after him Pythagoreans, born at Samos, and who seems to have flourished between 540 and 500 B.C.; after travels in many lands settled at Crotona in Magna Græcia, where he founded a fraternity, the members of which bound themselves in closest ties of friendship to purity of life and to active co-operation in disseminating and encouraging a kindred spirit in the community around them, the final aim of it being the establishment of a model social organisation. He left no writings behind him, and we know of his philosophy chiefly from the philosophy of his disciples.
Pythagoreans, the school of philosophy founded by Pythagoras, “the fundamental thought of which,” according to Schwegler, “was that of proportion and harmony, and this idea is to them as well the principle of practical life, as the supreme law of the universe.” It was a kind of “arithmetical mysticism, and the leading thought was that law, order, and agreement obtain in the affairs of Nature, and that these relations are capable of being expressed in number and in measure.” The whole tendency of the Pythagoreans, in a practical aspect, was ascetic, and aimed only at a rigid castigation of the moral principle in order thereby to ensure the emancipation of the soul from its mortal prison-house and its transmigration into a nobler form. It is with the doctrine of the transmigration of souls that the Pythagorean philosophy is specially associated.
Pytheas, a celebrated Greek navigator of Massilia, in Gaul, probably lived in the time of Alexander the Great; in his first voyage visited Britain and Thule, and in his second coasted along the western shore of Europe from Cadiz to the Elbe.
Pythian Games, celebrated from very early times till the 4th century A.D. every four years, near Delphi, in honour of Apollo, who was said to have instituted them to commemorate his victory over the Python; originally were contests in singing only, but after the middle of the 6th century B.C. they included instrumental music, contests in poetry and art, athletic exercises, and horse-racing.
Python, in the Greek mythology a serpent or dragon produced from the mud left on the earth after the deluge of Deucalion, a brood of sheer chaos and the dark, who lived in a cave of Parnassus, and was slain by Apollo, who founded the Pythian Games in commemoration of his victory, and was in consequence called Pythius.
Pythoness, the priestess of Apollo at Delphi (q. v.), so called from the Python (q. v.), the dragon slain by the god.
Pyx, the name of a cup-shaped, gold-lined vessel, with lid, used in the Roman Catholic churches for containing the eucharistic elements after their consecration either for adoration in the churches or for conveying to sick-rooms. Pyx means “box.” Hence Trial of the Pyx is the annual test of the British coinage, for which purpose one coin in every 15 lbs. of gold and one in every 60 lbs. of silver coined is set aside in a pyx or box.