The Nuttall Encyclopaedia by Edited by Rev. James Wood (page 38)

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-MACHE 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, AEMILIUS, 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 Luetzen, 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.

PARA (40), a Brazilian port at the mouth of the Guama, on the E. shore of the Para 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 Parana 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 Asuncion (18), at the confluence of the Pilcomayo and Paraguay.

PARAGUAY RIVER, a South American river 1800 m. long, the chief tributary of the Parana, 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 Parana 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 HELOISE (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.

PARANA 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 Fe, and Rosario.

PARCAE, 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.

PARE, 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 Cite 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 Hotel de Cluny and the Hotel 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 Theatre Francais, 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 Cite stands the Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie, one of the oldest Paris prisons. St.-Germain-des-Pres 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 Hotel Dieu, La Charite, and La Pitie. 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 Bibliotheque 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.-Honore, 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 Elysees 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 Egalite, 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 Prefect 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 OENONE (q. v.); appealed to to decide to whom the “apple of discord” belonged, gave it to Aphrodite 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, archaeologist and writer on architecture; originally a London publisher, his chief work the “Archaeology 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 L10 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 _via_ 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 “Pensees,” 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.

PASIPHAE, 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 Muenich 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-Woerterbuch 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 Dole, 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 Panini.

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 Caesar 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 L18,000; 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 AEgean 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-Pyrenees, 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 Goettingen; 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 Manichaeism, 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 Plataea 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 AEacus, 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 Bruenn 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 Pherae 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.

PENTHIEVRE, DUC DE, the father-in-law of Philippe Egalite, 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 Rhone, 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.

PERAEA, “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.

PERIER, 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.

PERIGORD, an ancient territory of France, S. of Guienne, famous for its truffles, of which PERIGUEUX (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.

PERIGUEUX (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 Burdwan, 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 Tet, 7 m. from the sea; a fortress in the French department of Pyrenees-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 Danae, 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 Danae; 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. Ispahan (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 Thermopylae 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 Plataea.

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’etat_ 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 AEmilius, 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.